Left 'Janata Darbar' venue to avoid stampede: Arvind Kejriwal
As chaos prevailed at AAP government's first 'janta darbar' here, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said he left the venue to avoid a stampede-like situation and admitted that arrangements were not adequate.
"We will have to improve the arrangements. If I had not left the place
then there was a possibility of a stampede. Everybody wanted to meet me.
We will streamline the system so that a similar situation does not
recur," he said.
"We will improve the system. I will sit with the officers and make necessary arrangements," he told reporters.
The chief minister was taken to his office by police personnel after the crowd at the public meet outside the Delhi Secretariat went out of control.
Kejriwal came out after a short while and asked the people to go back.
The chief minister stood on the boundary wall of the Secretariat and
told the crowd that their problems will be addressed at the next
meeting.
The entire Delhi Cabinet was present at the meet in Indraprastha Extension to attend grievances of the citizens.
Kejriwal convened the meet to directly interact with the common people and resolve their problems.
Thousands of people had gathered at the venue since 9am.
Police had put up barricades along the road outside the Secretariat as
well as other arterial roads nearby but surging crowd went out of
control creating chaos at the venue.
Two days back, Kejriwal had announced that his entire cabinet will sit outside the secretariat to resolve grievances of people.
Police estimated that 50,000 people had gathered in front of the
secretariat. The crowd mostly comprised contractual workers from various
government departments like DTC, power company BSES, different
government hospitals, municipal corporations, among others demanding
permanent status.
Sunita Kapoor from Mandawali in east Delhi
reached the secretariat at 6am for the meeting that was to start at
9:30am. She met Kejriwal and complained about unauthorised occupation of
her flat.
"I have been assured by the chief minister that I will be helped in the matter," she said.
The complainants, who met the chief minister or the Cabinet ministers, were issued a receipt about their complaints.
Officials of various government departments as well as of DDA,
municipal corporations and police were also present at the meeting.
The entire stretch of road that goes from ITO towards Rajghat was
closed and barricades put up on the divider so that people can sit on
one side of the road.
The chief minister had earlier announced
that the entire cabinet will sit in front of the Delhi Secretariat on
Saturdays to receive grievances from people and efforts will be made to
solve them immediately. On weekdays, one minister will receive
grievances from the public.
"Public grievance is another major
issue. It is a major issue for any government. It is the duty of every
government to resolve those grievances. Public grievance is just a
symptom, the disease lies somewhere else," said Kejriwal.
Grievances will be segregated into five categories depending upon their urgencies.
"The urgent cases related to school admission or admission to a
hospital will be resolved on the spot. In the next category, ministers
will mention the time frame to resolve the grievance.
"Those
related to policy matters will require time. They will be forwarded to
the respective ministers for their considerations, he had said.
The next category will be for taking suggestions from the public. A
team will be formed to look into them and regularly put up best of the
suggestions to the chief minister. Another is miscellaneous category and
the last is for those which are not related to the government, he had
said.
Kejriwal had said that unlike previous governments, he
will not go by the compliance reports filed by the officials but will
ensure that the complainant is absolutely satisfied.
