The public hearing known as Janta Darbar chaired by the District Magistrate Dehradun on the first day of every week was cancelled again on Monday. The local people who came to attend the public hearing from far-off places to present their grievances before the DM returned disappointed. Notably, such darbar had been cancelled on last Monday too with the DM citing his inability because of his preoccupation with the court-ordered anti-demolition drive, going on in the city.
It is learnt that six applications were submitted in the office which were mainly related to the road construction, cleaning and construction of the drains and irregularities into the implementation of Indra Awas Yojna.
Quizzed over why the public grievances address meeting was cancelled again, the officer in-charge said that he had received the information about the cancellation early in the morning. “It is due to the DM’s preoccupation with the ongoing anti-encroachment drive,” he added.
The darbar being cancelled for two consecutive Mondays has left the people frustrated. On last Monday too, many people who hailed from the far-flung areas of the district like those in the remote hills, had reached the office to present their grievances before the DM and had returned, empty-handed with the meeting being cancelled. They had waited patiently for a long time, hoping that the DM would finally arrive. However, the hope had not been fulfilled as the DM remained elusive. “The crucial meeting being cancelled repeatedly is sending a wrong message to the people and it might lose its efficacy if the same repeats,” says an observer.