PFRDA circular PFRDA/2025/01/CPGRAMS/01 · 24 Feb 2025
Official title
Regarding Timely and Quality Resolution of Grievances received under Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) Portal
Summary
Check the official recordThe Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has issued guidelines for the timely and quality resolution of grievances related to the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) submitted via the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS). Intermediaries and nodal offices must resolve grievances within 21 days, or within 3 days for priority cases. The circular outlines procedures for handling misdirected complaints, incomplete information, and appeals. It also specifies categories of references, such as RTI and sub-judice matters, that fall outside the CPGRAMS ambit. Entities are required to ensure high-quality resolutions to minimize negative feedback and adhere to the established grievance handling protocols.
What you must do
Key dates
Who is affected
Thresholds
Exceptions
If you do not comply
CIRCULAR
Circular No: PFRDA/2025/01/CPGRAMS/01
Date: 24.02.2025
To, All Govt Nodal Offices including Autonomous Bodies, PoPs, CRAs, PFMs, RAs, NPS Trust and TB
Sir/ Madam,
Subject: Regarding Timely and Quality Resolution of Grievances received under Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) Portal
Introduction The Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), under the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), is a platform for lodging grievances related to public service delivery which is monitored at the highest level in the Government of India. PFRDA is registered in CPGRAMS as a subordinate organization under DFS (Pension Reforms) and is responsible for ensuring the redressal of grievances related to the National Pension System (NPS) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY) received through the CPGRAMS portal.
Timelines for Resolution of Grievances The timelines for resolution of grievances on the CPGRAMS Portal is 21 days. However, all efforts are to be made to resolve the grievances within the earliest possible time. The status of the grievance filed in CPGRAMS can be tracked with the unique registration ID provided at the time of registration by the complainant. CPGRAMS also provides appeal facility to the citizens if they are not satisfied with the resolution by the Grievance Officer.
Option to File an Appeal After closure of grievance, the complainant has the option to provide feedback. If the complainant is not satisfied with the resolution and has given the ‘Poor’ rating as feedback, then the option to file an appeal is enabled. The status of the Appeal can also be tracked by the petitioner with the grievance registration number. The quality of resolutions should be ensured to avoid poor feedback rating by the complainants on the portal.
Advisory from the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance The PFRDA is provided all pendency reports and data on feedback rating, extracted from the CPGRAMS Portal, on frequent periodicity, advising PFRDA to ensure quick disposal of public grievances by all concerned. Monthly meetings are also held with Regulators to discuss all outstanding grievances to ensure timely and quality resolution.
Utmost care may be taken that all the grievances received at the end of intermediaries/entities/Government Nodal offices are resolved within defined turn-around time while ensuring quality resolution. In this regard, the diagrammatic representation of CPGRAM is given below-
CPGRAMS Flow
[Image omitted. See the official document.]
(Source: Annexure A to DARPG OM Dated 23.08.2024)
a. RTI Matters b. Court related / Sub-judice matters c. Religious Matters d. Grievances of Government employees concerning service matters e. Suggestions d. Anything that impacts upon territorial integrity of the country or friendly relations with other countries.
The Annexure A “Grievance Handling Process” of DARPG OM dated 23.08.2024 is also enclosed for ready reference.
This circular is being issued under sub-section (1) of Section 14 of PFRDA Act 2013, with the approval of the competent authority.
Yours Sincerely,
(Vikas Kumar Singh) Chief General Manager
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1.1 CPGRAMS is a Centralized portal which receives grievances on various issues ranging from service delivery, demand under schemes, queries on programmes, complaints against malpractices, corruption, discrimination, etc. The portal is connected to all the Ministries/Departments of the Government of India and its States through role-based access to the officers in the portal. When a citizen lodges a grievance, it gets redirected to the concerned authorities, ensuring it is resolved within the given time frame. CPGRAMS is also available in mobile application.
1.2 Going forward Complaints/ grievances received through physical mode/ Whatsapp/Chatbot shall also be registered in CPGRAMS. There is a possibility that the same grievances have been received by multiple authorities. Hence to avoid duplicate registrations in CPGRAMS only the authority concerned with the subject and also the grievance is addressed to them shall register the grievance in CPGRAMS. NIC will develop a protocol to assign unique code to such grievances registered by the Ministries/ Call center
1.3 After successful registration of the complaint a unique registration ID is generated through which the citizen can track status of his complaint. On resolution of grievance an SMS/email is sent to the registered mobile number & email address of the citizen. If the citizen is not satisfied with the resolution, he can provide feedback on the portal and raise appeal on the portal itself. In those cases where self -feedback is not available on the portal, DARPG tries to reach out the citizen through feedback call center to know whether their grievance has been actually resolved or not Unsatisfied citizen has the option to reopen / file an appeal through feedback call. The CPGRAMS process can be explained in the following Chart
1.4 Chart for Grievance Flow:
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CPGRAMS Flow
[Image omitted. See the official document.]
2.1 CPGRAMS Guidelines provides that the following category of references do not fall under the ambit of Public Grievances as they are covered under separate protocols. Following categories are the illustrative list of such references:
a. RTI Matters b. Court related / Sub-judice matters c. Religious Matters d. Grievances of Government employees concerning service matters e. Suggestions d. Anything that impacts upon territorial integrity of the country or friendly relations with other countries.
2.2 In case complaint is received under any such categories, it can be closed by the GRO clarifying the rule position to the citizens. DARPG will enhance capability of system for auto identification of such references. However, till such facility is created GRO can identify and mark the complaint under the above categories. He is not supposed to file ATR on those categories and complaints will not go into feedback loop.
2.3 Sometimes frivolous/Spam / abusive / complaints are also received in CPGRAMS. DARPG has developed AI capability to filter those complains at the initial stage. Those grievances are going into Spam box of GRO. If GRO validates the complaint as frivolous/ SPAM then the complaint will be automatically closed and no action will be required on such complaints. Those complaints will not be sent for feedback
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2.4 CPGRAMS also receives suggestions from the citizens. The subject specific suggestions may be forwarded to the concerned Division of the Ministries and an acknowledgment may be sent to the citizen. A template for such acknowledgement will be built in the PG portal. However generic suggestions with no substance can be simply closed. GRO is not supposed to act on the suggestion. Once GRO identifies a reference as suggestion, it will not require to file an Action Taken Report and will not go into feedback loop.
2.5 CPGRAMS also receives lots of references demanding a benefit under a scheme. Though they are not a grievance as such, however, those demand shall be noted by the concerned divisions. GRO therefore shall forward all such references to the concerned division and bulk close such references with a polite rule position. Such references shall also be identified by the GRO as a new demand under a scheme and excluded from the feedback loop.
