Redressal of grievances of Armed Forces Personnel

Grievance Redressal Mechanism for the Jawans

Government of India has implemented a web based Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) in all its Ministries / Departments including the Ministry of Defence. This system provides online access to all citizens including the jawans and other Armed Forces personnel to lodge their grievances with the Ministry of Defence. The CPGRAMS system allows the Ministry to monitor the grievances and ensure their time bound redressal by the organisations / institutions concerned of the Ministry.

The Armed Forces also have systems in place for the redressal of grievances of their personnel. The procedures for dealing with statutory and non-statutory complaints and representations have been laid down under various sections of The Army Act, 1950; The Navy Act, 1957; The Air Force Act, 1950 and the regulations and orders issued on the subject. There are also informal mechanisms in place for redressal of grievances in the Armed Forces like the sainik sammelans, personal interviews, suggestion boxes, informal meetings, etc.

Thus well laid out grievance redressal systems are in place to deal with the statutory and non-statutory complaints and grievances of the Armed Forces personnel including the jawans.

A new redressal mechanism has been started wherein soldiers can air their grievances directly to the Chief of Army Staff through WhatsApp messages after exhausting all laid down redressal procedures. All the grievances appearing on the social media sites and online relating to Air Force are being monitored at Air Head Quarters for authenticity and remedial measures. There is also a system of open forum on Air Force internet where the Air Force personnel can share their views and project their problems with the senior officers.

This information was given by Minister of State for Defence Dr. Subhash Bhamre in a written reply to Shrimati Chhaya Verma and Shri Vishambhar Prasad Nishad in Rajya Sabha today.