The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has cut its backlog of citizen grievances by more than 85 per cent in the first half of 2025, reducing pending complaints from 22,946 at the start of January to just 3,167 by the end of June, according to an official statement released on Saturday, 1 August. The drive was undertaken in alignment with directions from Delhi Lieutenant Governor T.S. Sandhu, who also serves as DDA Chairperson.

Scale of Grievance Resolution

Over the six-month period, the DDA resolved a total of 19,779 grievances received across multiple platforms. These included the Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), the LG Listening Post, CM Jan Sunwai / Public Grievance Monitoring System (PGMS), the Development Request Monitoring System (DRMS), Mobile 311, and Samasya Nidan Sewa. The multi-platform approach ensured that complaints filed through different channels were captured and tracked in a unified manner.

What the Lieutenant Governor Directed

Lieutenant Governor T.S. Sandhu had earlier directed DDA officials to adopt transparent, responsive, and accountable governance, with a clear mandate to address grievances promptly while substantially reducing the pending backlog. The authority responded by strengthening its redressal mechanism to ensure time-bound resolution, instituting continuous monitoring, regular departmental reviews, and greater institutional accountability.

Public Hearing System and Citizen Access

As part of its public-centric approach, the DDA now conducts bi-weekly public hearings every working Monday and Thursday. Citizens can walk in without a prior appointment to present their queries directly to officials. Deputy Directors and Directors are available between 2:30 pm and 4:30 pm, while Commissioners and above are accessible between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm. On average, around 6,000 people visit DDA offices each month on these public hearing days — a figure that underscores the scale of unmet civic demand the system is attempting to absorb.

Accountability at the Departmental Level

'Officers across departments have been regularly sensitised by the DDA Vice Chairman, N. Saravana Kumar, to accord highest priority to grievance disposal, while cases are reviewed on a continuous basis through regular follow-up with the concerned departments and field units to ensure timely resolution and improved accountability, avoiding any undue pendency,' the official statement said.

This is a notable institutional shift for an authority that has historically faced criticism for slow response times and opaque processes. The emphasis on continuous monitoring and named accountability — through the Vice Chairman's direct oversight — signals a structural, rather than cosmetic, change in how DDA is managing public interface. Whether the pace is sustained beyond the review period will be the real measure of reform.