Illegal cow slaughter, ban on porn among complaints to govt

Illegal cow slaughter and pornographic websites are among the major grievances of the people, going by complaints received by the Centre, a government-ordered study has said.

The complaints about porn sites were received by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, while a large number of grievances relating to e-commerce services and online and teleshopping scams were recorded by the Department of Consumer Affairs, the study said.

Most grievances -- 20 per cent of complaints -- lodged with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change related to cow slaughter and poor facilities for animal protection, it said.

Next on the list were complaints on industrial and vehicular pollution, which accounted for 17 per cent of the grievances, the study said.

Deforestation and waste management and plastic regulation each accounted for 13 per cent of the grievances.

Five per cent of the complaints were on rhino poaching.

"Illegal cow slaughter", "improper animal shelters and treatment facilities" and "increase in animal killing due to subsidy and tax benefits provided to slaughter houses" were at the core of most grievances for the ministry, said the recently released study.

Besides this, high industrial discharge and emissions, high emissions caused by burning wastes, high vehicular emissions, cutting of trees for road construction and land creation and poor response from forest department were the other issues which led to a high number of complaints.

"The construction and maintenance of animal shelters fall under the jurisdiction of the state governments. Essential measures to address grievances pertaining to cow slaughter and rhino poaching in Assam have already been undertaken by the government," the study said.

So, it said, grievance categories pertaining to animal welfare and rhino poaching had been "deprioritised for further analysis".

The study, which was conducted by the Quality Council of India for the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions following the recommendations of a Parliamentary committee, has also suggested some systemic reforms.

It has recommended reforms such as collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development to make waste collection a part of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and mpowering people to check industrial discharge in their areas.

A total of 20 ministries/departments were selected for the study based on the number of grievances received by them from April 2012 to March 2016 through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) -- an online system for filing of complaints.

It shortlisted certain divisions of the ministries concerned on the basis of the maximum grievances received by them from April 1, 2015, to March 31, 2016.

A total of 9,490 grievances were received during this period of which a sample size of 950 was used in the findings.

For the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, among the topmost issues was banning porn websites.

Seventeen per cent of complaints related to these sites, it said, followed by issues on government websites, digital locker and the digital India campaign, which accounted for 10 per cent, 9 per cent and 7 per cent of complaints respectively, the study said.

"Ban all porn websites" and "porn should be chargeable and payment should be made via official bank account to prevent usage by teenagers" were among the suggestions received, it said.

For the Department of Consumer Affairs, the topmost issue related to complaints against e-commerce services, accounting for 57 per cent of grievances, followed by issues with price regulations and online and teleshopping scams, among others.

A total of 2,862 and 2,504 complaints were received by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) and the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) respectively during the period. A sample size of 280 and 250 grievances relating to Meity and DoCA respectively were chosen for the study.