Passive, patient 8212; Jagmohan in durbar

8220;Nothing is going to happen,8221; he said. 8220;This is all an eyewash. Unless they remove the procedures which cause delay, nothing is going to change,8221; he said.

But Neeru, a resident of Greater Kailash Part I, chose to see this in another way. 8220;This is going to eat into their earnings. Or why should he say this?8221; she asked.

Neeru had come to complain to the Land and Development Officer about delayed allotment of ownership over ancestral property.

8220;He is a fine man. He was thrown out of his job in Kashmir because he knew his job too well. At least he is a good administrator,8221; she said.

Anjana Nath, a doctor, also from Greater Kailash, said that she came there despite several people advising her against going for such things. 8220;I feel that my complaint will be heard,8221; she said.

Jagmohan sat still and patient, reading complaint after compoplaint and handing each of them to appropriate officials with brief instruciton. There were no outbursts of temper or any emotion on his part though people came, often breaking into tears, and on rare occasions even stomping out in anger. He remained serious-faced with no outbursts directed at his officials, either reconciled to the fact that red tapism is a fact of life or content in a secret determination to see it end. 8220;These are habits which have to be changed. We are trying to do that,8221; he commented to an elderly complainant who was upset over delay in conversion of a leasehold to freehold.

He did seem moved by certain complainants, though nothing in his visage reflected it. When 74-year-old P.N. Sharma complained about unauthorised construction by a neighbour, he let him speak more than was necessary and then asked the DDA Deputy Commissioner to talk to him and to get pictures of the unauthorised construction.

But another elderly man left the room shouting that the country will never improve. His complaint was regarding the allotment of DDA flats. That the Housing Secretary had not even arrived when the Minister asked for the official, had upset him. Besides, he felt cheated as there were no instant redressal. 8220;What is this? He just gave my letter to those very officials who had not done anything on the matter for so many years?8221; he asked, shaking with anger.

8220;There was no instant justice on any occasion. The next durbar after 15 days will follow up on these issues,8221; Jagmohan8217;s secretary Ashok Mattoo said.

About 10 people were let into Jagmohan8217;s room at a time and though it took an hour to dispose of 50 cases, the operation moved at an impressive speed.

The meeting, which began at 3.30 p.m., went on till 9.30 p.m. but Jagmohan went on dispensing one complaint after another as if it was his calling.