The much-hyped 'Janata Darshan' of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, revived after Samajwadi Party stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh, has turned out to be a damp squib.
The reply to a query posted under Right to Information Act by a local RTI activist, Urvashi Sharma, showed that not a single 'Janata Darshan' (meet-the-people) programme of the chief minister has been held in the last six months.
Since SP came to power in March last year, only seven Janata Darshan programmes were held at 5 Kalidas Marg, the official residence of the chief minister.
Janata Darshan was started when party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav became the chief minister of the state for the first time.
During the programme, the CM met the people, heard their grievances and directed concerned officials to take action accordingly.
The practice was, however, discontinued during the BSP regime in which Mayawati was the chief minister.
When SP came to power last year, it announced to revive the Janata Darshan programme.
Initially, the Janata Darshan generated good response with large number of people from across the state gathering at the CM's residence to voice their concerns.
Yadav issued specific directives to the officials during every Janata Darshan and a coding system was introduced to mark each and every application.
However, as per the reply to the RTI query, no Janata Darshan programme has been held since November last year.
