Bhubaneswar, March 3: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s pet project “e-abhijoga”, a portal through which people could vent their grievances and hope for quick remedy, has collapsed within two-and-half years of its launch.

Most ministers and secretaries do not bother to look at the grievances though people continue to file complaints.

Of the 40 departments, 17 have not cleared a single case while 14 have failed to clear even 10 cases in the past two years. Secretaries tried to evade the issue while ministers said they would look into the matter. Some ministers also expressed ignorance about the system. Some secretaries, however, admitted that the fault of not tracking the grievances was theirs.

Housing and urban development secretary Injeti Srinivas said: “It was my mistake. The issue came to my notice yesterday. I removed the officer concerned and have directed that at least half of the complaints be redressed within a month.”

Naveen had launched the system on July 31, 2010. He had talked to some people through video conferencing to create awareness about the facility.

The case of a 12-year-old boy from Kalahandi suffering from a liver disease was brought to the chief minister’s notice on the inaugural day and he sanctioned Rs 10,000 for the boy on the spot.

To lodge a complaint, one has to log on to the e-abhijog portal and mention the grievance and the department concerned. Each department has officials tracking the complaints and are expected to respond to them.

School and mass education minister Rabi Narayan Nanda said: “If this is true, it’s alarming. I would certainly ask my officials to look into the matter.” Of the 528 petitions related to his department, only two have been solved so far.

Like most other ministers, Nanda knows little about the e-abhijoga system. Revenue and disaster minister Surjya Narayan Patro is no different. “I am not aware of this system. The complaints might be going to secretary of the department.” His department has responded to only three of the 178 complaints it has received over two years.

Industries department additional secretary S.C. Nayak said: “There are 118 complaints against the department. Over the past two years, the department has been divided into four but it seems we alone are being blamed for not addressing the grievances.”

“We have 22 petitions and action has been taken to address 14 of them,” he said.

Food supplies and consumer welfare secretary M.S. Padhi said: “I will look into this issue. Our department has another helpline called “Sanjoga”, which people use to air grievances.” Nearly 70 petitions are pending for disposal in this department.

In the water resources department headed by Naveen, only seven cases out of the 262 received have been cleared. Likewise, the panchayati raj department has addressed only two of the 266 grievances.

SC and ST department secretary Santosh Sarangi said: “We have addressed 50 per cent of the grievances. It might not have been posted on the website or communicated to the public grievances department.” However, his claim appears to be false because the department has not solved a single of the 116 complaints received.