It reaffirms my commitment to uphold welfare, dignity of our soldiers: Sinha
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, July 17: In a landmark initiative for ensuring timely redressal of civilian concerns of serving soldiers, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha today ordered establishment of the “Lieutenant Governor’s Sainik Sahayta Kendra” in the Union Territory of J&K.
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It will be a dedicated institutional mechanism for facilitating the redressal of civilian grievances faced by soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces and Central Armed Police Forces, who are posted in the Union Territory of J&K or who belong to Jammu and Kashmir and are presently serving in other parts of the country.
According to an order in this regard, the LG’s Sainik Sahayta Kendra will start operations with immediate effect from the premises of Civil Secretariat, Jammu and Srinagar while an IAS and two JKAS officers have been nominated for its operationalization.
Sharing details of establishment of the LGSSK, in a series of posts on social media X, the Office of LG J&K says: “It reaffirms my commitment to uphold the welfare & dignity of our soldiers by ensuring timely & structured redressal of their civilian concerns through an institutional platform.”
Functioning as Soldiers’ Assistance and Liaison Cell, the Kendra will serve as a single window platform for receiving, assessing and facilitating redressal of grievances submitted by serving soldiers. It will facilitate appointments of soldiers (or their representatives) with the concerned civil/police officials in their concerned districts, to whom the grievances pertain.
Further, the Kendra will communicate with and follow up on unresolved matters and help resolve them expeditiously. Besides maintain a performance dashboard for ease of reference and follow-up, it will submit quarterly performance reports to the Lt Governor.
To support the functioning of the LGSSK, the Information Technology Department will provide two officials each at Jammu and Srinagar, who are proficient in data entry, case tracking, file maintenance, and communications, along with the necessary computer systems and allied hardware. The Estates Department has been directed to provide appropriate accommodation for the Kendra at both Secretariat locations.
In addition to their own duties, Prasanna Ramaswamy G, Secretary Tribal Affairs Department; Aflaq Ahmad, Under Secretary in Revenue Department and Abhimanyu Singh, Manager-cum-Protocol Officer at the Resident Commission, J&K Government, New Delhi, have been nominated for immediate operationalization of the Kendra.
Headed by an IAS Officer of the rank of Secretary, the Sainik Sahayta Kendra shall comprise an IPS officer of the rank of SSP, two JKAS officers and two clerical staff.
As per operational protocol of the Kendra, the grievances submitted by any serving personnel shall be routed through the Unit’s Commanding Officer to ensure authenticity and security clearance.
Each grievance will be reviewed by the JKAS Officers assisting the cell, to confirm clarity and jurisdiction. If required, an interaction (virtual or telephonic) will be arranged with the complainant for clarification.
The IAS/IPS officer will personally contact the relevant Civil/Police officer(s) in the soldier’s home district to secure an appointment. Wherever required, informal batch-level or service-based channels shall be utilized for speedy disposal.
A fixed follow-up schedule of seven days and 15 days checkpoints will be maintained for each case while escalation protocols will be involved for the cases remaining unresolved beyond one month. The Head of the LGSSK shall, through the Chief Secretary or Director General of Police, as the case may be, escalate unresolved issues with the concerned administration.
Feedback from the complainant will be collected post-appointment. A dashboard will also be developed by the Information Technology Department for tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPI) such as grievance volumes, resolution rates, average time to closure and satisfaction scores.
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