Suppose your cooking gas cylinder is leaking and the emergency numbers of the service provider is not working. Or, let’s say, you’ve booked a refill but the same has not been delivered to you within the stipulated time. More than the issue at hand, what niggles you more probably is the response, or rather the lack of it, from the authorities concerned.
So, what next? If you’re a user of social media, all you need to do now is tweet to @dpradhanBJP, the official Twitter handle of petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan. As per claims made by Pradhan, the grievance would be redressed within a period of 24 hours. If you’re lucky, you even stand a chance to get a direct call from the minister himself.
Also, perhaps for the first time in history of the petroleum ministry, Pradhan has set up a grievance redressal cell at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi, which tracks anyone putting across a complaint or suggestion through the minister’s social media platform. The team works on a real-time basis and on holidays too.
Pradhan is always logged on to his Facebook and Twitter account on his tablet, which he carries everywhere. Often, he himself picks up his mobile phone and calls up a consumer to check if his issue has been resolved. Three deputy general manager-level officers from the oil-marketing companies – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) – have been deputed at this cell.
Just to give you an idea of the kind of complaints that are coming forward, on January 1, Manish Vijay tweeted to Pradhan at 7.28 pm saying: “My builder is asking R24,500 for PNG connection at an under-construction building. What is the actual cost for that?” On December 22, 2015, Kashish tweeted saying the cooking gas cylinder at her home in Faridabad is leaking and none of the agencies is answering the emergency numbers. On the same day, Vipin Bhardwaj from Sonipat asked the minister whether the government would force him to surrender his LPG subsidy if he did not have an Aadhaar number.
Once a complaint is received, the officers at the redressal team asks for the consumer’s contact details such as the name of the gas agency and its location. Instead of following the conventional model of a senior officer passing on the file to his subordinates, the executives in the new system will directly get in touch with the LPG distributor and resolve the problem. This will result in a quicker response.
“It brings a lot of conviction to the system. At the same time, it sends a signal of improvement throughout the system,” said RS Butola, former chairman oft IOC, the largest retailer of LPG and other petroleum products in the country.
In a free-wheeling conversation with FE, Pradhan said 2016 would be ‘the year of consumers’. He felt proud to point out the fact that the footfall received at refuelling stations (retail outlets) and LPG distributors is the highest in the country compared to any other sector. “The ministry of petroleum and natural gas accounts for facilitating and monitoring at least 35% of the energy demand in the country,” he added.
