Ahmedabad, Jul 25 (PTI) The Gujarat government has resolved more than 27,600 complaints that the state Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) received under the SWAGAT initiative in the last three-and-a-half years, officials said on Friday.
These complaints were resolved by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel under the Statewide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology (SWAGAT), a citizen’s grievance redressal initiative started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2003 when he was the chief minister.
Under the SWAGAT initiative, citizens can directly reach out to the CMO to register their grievances using an online platform. The chief minister as well as senior officials then interact in person with these complainants and through video conferencing on the fourth Thursday of every month for redressal of grievances.
The SWAGAT online programme is held at the state, district, taluka and village levels.
Under the state SWAGAT programme, the chief minister himself attends the public hearings and gives necessary instructions to the officials to bring about a solution to the complaints, R V Vyas, Officer on Special Duty for SWAGAT programme, said.
Since the launch of this portal in 2003, the state government has received over 8.16 lakh complaints in 22 years. Of these, 8.08 lakh complaints were successfully resolved, said a state government release.
Between June 2024 and May 2025, CM Bhupendra Patel personally heard 105 complaints under state-level SWAGAT and brought solutions to 95 grievances, indicating a success rate of 90.48 per cent, it said.
From November 2021, a month after CM Patel assumed the office for the first time, till May 2025, the state government received over 33,000 complaints under the ‘Write to CM’ initiative, which is also a component of the SWAGAT initiative.
Of these complaints, CM Patel brought solutions to over 27,600 complaints while a process was underway to resolve other grievances, the release said, adding that the initiative has strengthened the connection between the government and its citizens.
Ahmedabad resident Shreekant Bhavsar had been running from pillar to post for the last 40 years to resolve an issue related to his land. After finding no solution for nearly four decades, Bhavsar finally saw a ray of hope in the form of the SWAGAT programme as work on resolving the problem started soon after submitting a complaint through this portal.
“The chief minister personally heard my grievance at the state-level SWAGAT programme and gave necessary instructions to the district collector and a concerned secretary to resolve the issue so that I get possession of this land,” he said.
The SWAGAT initiative also proved beneficial for Navsari resident Manjeet Singh Labhana, who had used the mobile application of this initiative to resolve this issue related to a piece of land acquired by the government for a national highway project.
“I downloaded the SWAGAT mobile app and submitted a complaint, which reached directly to the CM. Following his intervention, I finally found a solution,” he said.
According to Vyas, the problems of lakhs of such citizens are now being solved in no time.
Recently, the CMO has added the feature of escalation matrix wherein the official, to whom the complaint is forwarded by the SWAGAT office, is required to reply within specified days, for example 14 days, the official said.
“If he fails to do so, the complaint automatically goes to his superior, such as an SDM. If he also fails to revert, then the complaint will be escalated to the collector and he has to reply within stipulated time. The complainant can also escalate the matter to a higher official if he is not satisfied with the junior officer’s answer,” Vyas said.
Moreover, complainants can also give their feedback by giving ratings from 1 to 10. A rating between 1 to 5 indicates he was not satisfied with the solution while ratings between 5 to 10 indicates that he was satisfied, the official said. PTI PJT PD NP
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