Two days after his first much-hyped Janata Durbar ended in a fiasco, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced his government’s decision to scrap it.
Instead, it will put in place new avenues through which people can report their grievances.
Mr. Kejriwal clarified that people need not come to the Secretariat with their grievances, rather “he himself will visit different parts of the city area-wise every Saturday”.
Instead of meeting the Chief Minister or his Cabinet colleagues to register complaints, citizens will have to report their complaints online, via post or through phone calls.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister to review Saturday’s incident when he had to leave the venue midway to avoid a stampede-like situation as hundreds jostled to register their grievances. Following the chaos at his first Janata Durbar, Mr. Kejriwal had promised the waiting crowd that “he would hold another durbar in four or five days after making better arrangements”.
Mr. Kejriwal said: “That day (first Janata Durbar) a lot of people had come. We had a meeting today. We are making a system through which citizens can report their grievances online. The facility is already available on the Delhi Government website. People can also send us their complaints via post. We will set up a help box down here (Secretariat). It will start in 2-3 days.”
He said the State Government will also set up a call centre to receive complaints. “All those who cannot write to us can call the call centre number. Their complaints will be taken down and read out to them,” Mr. Kejriwal said, adding that “a video-conferencing system will also be launched soon to address public grievances”.
Despite the chaos and mismanagement, the first Janata Durbar received 2,582 complaints of which 848 were marked to the Chief Minister.
However, Mr. Kejriwal was able to personally meet only around two dozen complainants before he was forced to leave.
‘Govt. of call centres’
Meanwhile, the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee criticised the Kejriwal Government for its style of functioning, terming it a government of “call centres and helplines”.
“The decisions taken by the AAP Government have only harmed the interests of the ordinary people of Delhi. The Janata Durbar was held to hog free publicity. It made fun of the people of Delhi, who really needed to get their problems redressed,” said DPCC member and former MLA Mukesh Sharma.
The Congress leader also slammed Mr. Kejriwal for leaving the venue midway stating “the Chief Minister who runs away from the people and climb on the terrace to laugh at their helplessness had no right to claim that he was representing the common people”.
