Lucknow:
For the first time in five years, the doors of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister's residence at 5 Kalidas Marg in Lucknow were thrown open to the public. From today, the newly elected Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav began his
Janata Durbar where residents of the state will walk in with their problems, hoping to find solutions.
"We are happy that we now have a chief minister who meets his people," said one of the lucky visitors who met the chief minister. "I hope he does not throw these requests of ours in the dustbin and acts on them," said another.
On day one, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met close to 10,000 people for over 5 hours. But not everyone was lucky enough to get an audience with their new chief minister.
40 year old Amit Johri and his wife Poornima Agarwal are both differently abled, and living in different cities, since the Mayawati government transferred Poornima Agarwal, who is a government school teacher. They had come with the hope of getting Poornima relocated to Lucknow.
"We came but since we could not compete with the mad rush of people at the gates so we were left out", said Amit Johri.
"This kind of mismanagement happens when things are new, we should overlook it, we will come back the next time, he is a good chief minister and I am hopeful he will listen." said Poornima Agarwal.
During her five year tenure, former Chief Minister Mayawati never held a
Janata Durbar or accepted letters from the people of the state. But now with a more accessible chief minister like Akhilesh Yadav in power, people are looking forward to a more responsive chief minister's office.