Each and every university and college, including technical institution, have a separate grievance cell, which would hear the issues of faculties, students, parents and other management staff besides the public. In addition, the complaints could also be lodged online. The state government’s Petition Processing Portal (PPP), which receives complaints both in English and Tamil, would also send to the department concerned. 

A senior official from the Higher Education Department, seeking anonymity, told DT Next that though acknowledgment is given for all the petitions that were received and kept in separate databases, response time by the authorities concerned are getting delayed. 

“Therefore, about 90 per cent of petitioners approach the courts to get the solution and the cases in Higher Education Department has increased manifold during the last five years,” he said adding “in addition, there were several contempt cases that were also pending with the department.” 

Stating that though there was a Court-Case Monitoring System, the web-enabled system which collects information on court cases of all departments are available, he said, “the government is of the opinion that if the petitions could be processed soon after it was filed, then the complainant will not approach the court for justice.” 

The official pointed out that more than 70 per cent of the cases were related to faculty versus either the institution or the department concerned with regard to issues such as salaries, transfers, and promotions. 

Explaining further about the new initiative to respond within three days to the petitions, he said, “the number of petitions (date-wise) will be matched with official’s response data so that delay from the authorities concerned could be found out.” 

“The petitions or complaints received directly and the response sheet will also be stored in a computer database,” he said adding that the officials handling the complaints will also request the petitioners not to approach the court and promise them that their genuine issues would be solved.