Vijay Bahadur Chauhan has endured a long train journey from Rasra in Ballia, more than 350 km away on the eastern fringes of Uttar Pradesh, to find himself outside 5, Kalidas Marg, the official residence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. On a recent morning, he was hoping to get an audience with the Chief Minister.
Mr. Chauhan has come with his son, Chote Lal, 17. Struck by polio, Chote Lal is sitting on a wheelchair on which are engraved the Hindi words: “Ek parivar ke char bachhe viklang” — In one family, four children are crippled. Four of Mr. Chauhan’s six children — three sons and a daughter — are stricken with polio and immobile.
What draws Mr. Chauhan to the Chief Minister’s residence is not the hope of financial help. He has a specific request. A labourer from the backward classes, he is seeking a toilet since he does not have one in his house or anywhere close. “We have to carry them out to the fields each time they want to relieve themselves. It is time consuming and stressful. Sometimes we are unable to do that, which creates fights with neighbours, who scold us. If a toilet is built, it will save a lot of trouble for us,” says Mr. Chauhan.
Mr. Chauhan is not alone. Almost every day, a few hundred people from the far-flung corners of UP come to Mr. Yogi’s residence in Lucknow, leaving behind their daily routine, in search of justice or redressal of grievances. The CM, when present, hears them out in his janata darshan sessions and directs officials to take necessary action.
The complaints could span the whole range: financial help, agricultural plots, power supply, drinking water, housing, land grabbing, pension delays, irregularities in land records, medical assistance, and wedding assistance. If a Bareily resident recently sought help for his kidney ailment, a woman from Lucknow requested free education and pension due to the untimely death of her husband, while a labourer from Sambhal complained against his employer for non-payment of wages.
Mr. Chauhan’s journey to the CM’s residence to get a toilet built depicts the failure of the local administration to address the grievances of the people. “There is no other recourse for the poor. That’s why we have to come all the way here,” says Suresh Chandra, a Dalit, who sells scrap for a living.
Given the run-around
Along with two colleagues, Mr. Chandra has just exited the CM’s house after submitting his petition. A resident of Hathras, more than 385 km away, near Agra, Mr. Chandra claims that the police in his district have falsely implicated his son and three others, including two women relatives, on charges of kidnapping the minor daughter of an influential local. He wants a fair probe in the case. “They arrested my son even without a probe. They are not even investigating the disappearance of the girl. We went to the SP but his diwan asked us to wait. Even after four hours we got no hearing,” says Mr. Chandra. “Hang us if we are guilty. If we were guilty we would not dare come here," he says as he sits down to eat a meal of rotis and pickle in the shade. Along with scores of other aggrieved people, he had waited for his turn from 6.30 a.m.
As afternoon approaches, the complainants and the aggrieved start to trickle out from the CM’s complex. Ram Daras Yadav, holding a bunch of papers, is one of them. A resident of Gorakhpur, Mr. Adityanath’s stronghold, Mr. Yadav alleges that a local BJP leader was illegally obstructing the construction of an RCC road to his house in his village under the Jnaneshwar Mishra scheme. The existing kutcha road was affecting his mobility.
“The DM sent me to the SDM Bansgaon, who directed me to the CDO. But nothing happened. The tehsildar did not show up at the site. I didn’t know where I would get justice. Villagers then advised me to come here,” said Mr. Yadav, a farmer.
While a meeting with the CM or any senior minister fills the aggrieved with hope, some say the assurances they are given are hollow. After 10 years of service, Snehlata Jaiswal, an anganwadi worker, was suspended in 2013 for alleged corruption. She claims she was falsely implicated and wants her job to be restored. This is her second attempt to get a hearing from the CM — she earlier visited during Akhilesh Yadav’s time. She also paid two visits to the Gorakhnath Mutt but without success. “There is no use coming here. I came with hope but nothing happens. I have two kids to feed. I dont’t know what I will do,” a distraught Ms. Jaiswal said, as she walked out from Kalidas Marg, the power boulevard of UP.
Promises to return
On the day Mr. Chauhan came to Kalidas Marg to plead for a toilet in his house, Mr. Yogi was not there to meet him. Mr. Chauhan even sat on a dharna with his four children to draw the administration’s attention.
On the day of Holi, this year, he attended the janata durbar of influential Rasra MLA Uma Shankar Singh, of the BSP, with petitions. “I was disheartened to find the papers ending up in the trash box. All the officials ever say is, ‘Your work will be done.’ But they do nothing. I am tired of running around,” says Mr. Chauhan, who says he will return another day to meet the CM.
