Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday, 22 June directed that public grievances involving multiple departments will be the sole accountability of the principal department concerned, as he chaired the monthly State SWAGAT public grievance redressal programme in Gandhinagar. The directive marks a sharper push toward time-bound resolution and inter-departmental coordination in the state's flagship citizen outreach mechanism.

Key Directives from the Chief Minister

Patel instructed district administrations and government departments to resolve citizens' applications in a speedy, transparent and time-bound manner. He emphasised that district-level officials should examine and decide cases at their own level wherever possible, forwarding only those matters falling under state jurisdiction — and doing so without delay.

'The responsibility for resolving issues involving two or three departments will rest with the principal government department concerned,' Patel stated, making clear that applicants should not be left in limbo due to inter-departmental coordination failures.

Scale of This Month's SWAGAT Session

A total of 5,200 representations received across State, District, and Taluka SWAGAT platforms were forwarded to relevant departments for action. Of these, 2,228 were received at the district level and 2,854 at the taluka level. More than 120 applicants attended in person at the Chief Minister's Office Public Relations Unit to submit grievances directly.

The June session was held on Monday instead of the customary fourth Thursday of the month, as the state-wide school enrolment drive is scheduled from 23 to 25 June. Issues raised spanned rehabilitation land allotments, encroachments on grazing land, and discrepancies stemming from land re-surveys.

Cases That Drew the Chief Minister's Direct Intervention

Farmers from Chhota Udepur and Mehsana districts presented concerns directly before Patel. One applicant from Chhota Udepur stated that land owed to him under a rehabilitation package had not been allotted even though his original land had been submerged by an irrigation project. Patel called the repeated hardship 'inappropriate', assigned primary accountability to the Irrigation Department, and directed that alternative land be allotted within 30 days.

In a separate case, a farmer from Mehsana complained that his recorded land area had shrunk following a re-survey. Patel directed the district collector to order immediate measurement and complete corrective action within 15 days. He also instructed the Inspector of Land Records (ILR) office to resolve land-measurement disputes within prescribed timelines and to eliminate unnecessary back-and-forth correspondence between Mamlatdar offices and the ILR office.

Grazing Land Encroachment in Visnagar

The Chief Minister also intervened in a grazing land encroachment case in Visnagar taluka, where a decision had already been taken at the District SWAGAT level but action had not followed. Patel directed the district collector to remove the encroachment immediately, underscoring that decisions without follow-through defeat the purpose of the grievance mechanism.

Officials Present and Next Steps

The programme was attended by Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Sanjeev Kumar, Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar, Officers on Special Duty Dhiraj Parekh and Rakesh Vyas, and senior secretaries of the concerned departments. District collectors and administrative officials joined via video conference to provide additional information on cases under review.

With firm deadlines now attached to specific cases and primary-department accountability formalised, the onus shifts to district collectors — whom Patel explicitly identified as the appropriate authorities to lead timely resolution of local grievances.