Akhilesh revives janata darshan to listen to public's woes

Making a difference in style of governance, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday revived the practice of meeting people to listen to their grievances at his official residence in Lucknow, a step that was ended by his predecessor Mayawati.

Long queues of people were seen at 5, Kalidas Marg, an area that was out of bounds for the common man during Mayawati's days.

The practice of janata darshan, which was very popular in the earlier regime of Mulayam Singh Yadav, was done away with by Mayawati.

In fact, all the roads leading to the chief minister's residence were closed for commoners with barricading done on both the sides when the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo was in power. The entry was open for media only during press conferences and that too for those who are invited.

Though immediately after assuming power in the state, Akhilesh started meeting people at his official residence, the formal janata darshan was revived on Wednesday.

People from all over the state gathered at the first janata darshan of the youngest CM and police and security personnel had a tough time controlling them. There were directives not to use power to regulate the crowd.

Ram Swarup from Gonda, who came to Lucknow to get a road laid in his village, was happy with his meeting. He is hopeful that his request would be addressed. "We were left with no option in earlier regime. Local officials did not listen to them and there was no one to take hear our grievances", he said.

Another man, Harish from Ambedkar Nagar, who is running from pillar to post for job after his father's death, also hailed the chief minister's decision to meet commoners. "I think applications taken here will be taken seriously and officers will dispose them off," he said.

"Leave aside janata darshan, Mayawati even did not met her party leaders and legislators. Her government was run by bureaucrats and she did whatever they feeded her. Now people are witnessing a change with the SP at the helm of affair and janata darshan is the way by which CM can know the real problems being faced by his people", SP spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said.

The complaints that poured in on the first day of janata darshan included that of land dispute, atrocities on poor, employment and  promotions besides requests for electricity, roads and water facilities in their areas, sources said.

During the programme, Yadav received petitions from the people and assured them that he will look into them.