Welfare of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Women and other Weaker Sections (Ministry of Mines)

The Ministry of Mines, its attached office, subordinate office and the Public Sector Undertakings under its administrative control, have already strived to fill up the backlog vacancies in respect of SC/ST. For upliftment of weaker Sections of society, PSUs identified and implemented a number of programmes in the peripheral area of their respective units/locations. A number of activities like, community education programmes, facilitating availability of drinking water, repair development of approach roads of surrounding areas, arranging health awareness programmes, and medical camps in rural areas, were undertaken by the PSUs for upliftment of the community in and around their townships as part of their social responsibility.

For the Welfare of Persons with Disabilities in the Ministry, due attention has been given towards the Section 33 & Section 34 of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 on reservation of vacancies for Persons with Disabilities.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which provides that Government shall appoint in every Government establishment, not less than four per cent of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities of which, one per cent each shall be reserved for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (a), (b) and (c) and one per cent for persons with benchmark disabilities under clauses (d) and (e), namely:—

(a) blindness and low vision;

(b) deaf and hard of hearing;

(c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy;

(d) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness;

(e) multiple disabilities from amongst persons under clauses (a) to (d) including deaf-blindness; in the posts identified for each disability.

Vigilance Cases of the Ministry of Mines:

“During the year 2020-21 (upto 31st December, 2020), 12 complaints were received. From the previous calendar year 21 complaints are pending. Out of these total 33 complaints, 19 have been brought to their logical conclusion and 14 complaints are pending as on 31.12.2020. Vigilance Awareness Week was observed from 27th October, 2020 to 02nd November, 2020 in the Ministry as well as in Subordinate/Attached Offices of the Ministry. During the week, Essay competition related to vigilance activities was organised in the Ministry”.

Right to Information

Ministry of Mines, Attached Office, Subordinate Office and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) under the charge of the Ministry had appointed Central Public Information Officers (CPIO) and Appellate Authorities. The Ministry has also set up a Facilitation Counter for applicants and constituted a ‘Public Information Cell’ for processing of the requests and their monitoring in the Ministry. The Ministry along with its Attached Office, Subordinate Office and PSUs has been receiving various requests under RTI Act, which are properly and timely responded to. During the year 2021 (1st January, 2021 to 31st Dec, 2021), the Ministry received 636 applications under the RTI Act, which were timely responded. 33 Appeals received against the decisions of the CPIOs were disposed of by the concerned Appellate Authorities within the stipulated time frame.

The Ministry along with its Attached Office, Subordinate Office and PSUs has also been furnishing the quarterly and annual report on the receipt and disposal of the requests seeking the information, from time to time promptly and accurately. The status regarding receipt and disposal of RTI Applications, First Appeals and Second Appeals w.r.t. the Ministry and its office is given at Table 14.5 and Table 14.6 respectively.

Redressal of Public Grievances

In pursuance of the instructions and guidelines issued on 1st March, 1988 by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances to strengthen the internal grievance redressal machinery in each Ministry/ Department of the Central Government, the Economic Advisor of the Ministry of Mines has been designated as the Director of Grievances and has been vested with adequate powers in respect of all matters pertaining to the grievances received in the Ministry. Whenever a grievance is found to be genuine, directives for appropriate corrective measures are given to the concerned executive authorities. The Ministry of Mines has, under its administrative control, one Attached office, one Subordinate Office, three Public Sector Undertakings and two Autonomous Bodies. The Chief Executives of the PSUs, the Heads of the Subordinate Office, Attached Office and the Autonomous Bodies have been entrusted with the responsibility of strengthening the grievance redressal machinery by designating senior level officers to look after the job and to report directly to the respective Chief Executive/Head. Quarterly reports about the grievances received and disposed of are submitted by the PSUs, Attached Office, Subordinate Office and the Autonomous Bodies of the Ministry.

Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DAR&PG) has implemented a web based Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAM) vide which grievances pertaining to concerned Ministries / Department are forwarded for redressal. An Economic Advisor has been designated as the Nodal Officer of Public Grievances. During the period 1st January, 2021 to 31st December, 2021, 1902 Public Grievances were received and 101 pending cases were brought forward from the year 2020. A total of 1979 Public Grievances have been disposed of during the period and the remaining cases have been referred to the concerned Organization / Authority for taking further necessary action in the matter. Details of action taken on the public grievances of this Ministry and its attached / subordinate offices during the year 2021 (from 01st January 2021 till 31st December, 2021) are given in Table 14.2.