Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked senior administrative officials to redress grievances lodged with the chief minister’s office (CMO) within seven days after it had apparently emerged that some departments were taking more than three weeks to resolve the complaints related to government services.

The chief minister issued the directive during an administrative review meeting at Nabanna on Wednesday.

Sources present at the meeting said Mamata had made it clear that those who lodged complaints with the CMO must be facing some troubles and their grievances should be addressed within a short period.

A bureaucrat said the instruction hinted that more and more people were lodging complaints with the CMO apparently after they did not get services from the government.

Usually, people lodge complaints with the chief minister’s grievance redress cell that functions under the CMO when they don’t get desired services from the government officials or offices.

“Thousands of complaints are lodged with the CMO every week. The CMO then forwards the complaints to the departments concerned asking them to take steps,” said a source.

But a recent review by the government has revealed that some of the departments were taking more than 25 days to resolve the issues.

“The chief minister wants to cut down the window to seven days in a bid to solve the problems of common people at the earliest,” said a source.

A section of the officials said Mamata wanted to resolve the issues fast as majority of the complaints were coming from rural areas. As it is expected that panchayat polls will be held in February next year, the state government cannot allow the grievances to pile up in the rural areas.

Officials also said redressing the grievances within seven days was easier said than done as a large number of complaints were related to the 100-day rural job scheme, PMAY or rural roads for which central funds were yet to come.

During the meeting, the top brass of the government expressed concern over the Centre’s decision to hold the release of funds under the 100-day job scheme alleging irregularities.

Birbhum visit shelved

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee said at the administrative review meeting that she would not be visiting Birbhum from September 11 for three days.

“I had planned to go to Birbhum on September 11, but I will not be visiting right now. I will plan it later,” an official quoted Mamata as saying at the meeting.

Sources said Mamata would not visit the district as Trinamul Congress strongman and Birbhum district president of the party Anubrata Mondal was still in jail following his arrest by the CBI in the cattle-smuggling case.