India’s public backlog rises despite record complaint handling | Today’s news
New Delhi: Pending public grievances with states and Union Territories under the Centralized Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) rose to 216,032 at the end of June, about 26% more than in December 2025, underscoring how growing use of the portal by citizens is outpacing governments’ ability to handle disposal cases on a monthly basis.
According to the latest monthly report released by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) on Wednesday, states and UTs received 96,190 public complaints in June, the highest monthly inflow so far this year, and disposed of 93,170 complaints, also the highest monthly disposal in 2026. Even so, new complaints are still exceeding.
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Backlogs have steadily increased over the year, with backlogs rising from 178,674 in January to 192,877 in February, 201,088 in March, 211,701 in April, 213,190 in May and 216,032 in June.
During the first six months of 2026, states and UTs received 500,345 complaints and disposed of 455,957, carrying over 171,644 backlogs from the year-ago period.
CPGRAMS is the Centre’s online public grievance portal through which citizens can lodge complaints about public service deficiencies, delays or malpractices by central ministries, ministries, state administrations and UTs. It is distinct from the National Consumer Helpline (NCH), which handles consumer disputes related to goods and services purchased by consumers.
A wide gap
At the end of June, 23 states and Union territories had more than 1,000 pending complaints. Maharashtra reported the highest incidence with 29,247 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh (28,816), Bihar (13,659), Haryana (12,948), Madhya Pradesh (11,851) and Tamil Nadu (10,499).
Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of complaints received during June at 32,559, followed by Gujarat (6,713), Haryana (5,881), Maharashtra (5,770) and Delhi (5,462). It also disposed of the most complaints and cleared 31,460 cases during the month, ahead of Maharashtra (7,619) and Haryana (7,183).
The report also highlighted large differences in disposal efficiency between states. Telangana recorded the lowest average complaint handling time at six days during January-June 2026, followed by Chandigarh (14 days), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (18 days), Rajasthan (23 days), Tripura (23 days), Gujarat (25 days) and Uttar Pradesh (25 days).
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Bihar, for example, handled 5,128 complaints in June, which is more than the 4,255 new complaints it received during the month. Even so, June ended with a backlog of 13,659 cases, including 10,698 pending for more than 21 days.
The report said the CPGRAMS feedback call center collected 75,318 citizen responses in June, including 33,092 related to states and UTs. Of these, 14,979 complaints were marked as resolved through feedback, with 70% of citizens expressing satisfaction with the resolution provided.
CPGRAMS also continued to expand its reach. During June, 83,544 new users registered on the platform and 6,262 complaints were filed through the Common Service Center (CSC). Uttar Pradesh accounted for 28% of all complaints registered through the CSC network.
Experts said the increase in complaints reflects the growing adoption of digital complaint platforms by citizens, but also highlights that the capacity to handle complaints has not kept pace with the increase in complaints.
“We should now focus on reducing dependency while maintaining resolution quality,” said Ashim Sanyal, managing director of Consumer VOICE.
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