Who was Jagmohan's dad was posted as a track engineer in the Indian Railways. From time to time, the family shifted to other stations and lived in numerous railway colonies. At that time, the national freedom movement was gaining ground. But it was soon overtaken by the divisive fall-outs of the 'two nation' theory due to the British policy of 'divide and rule' . All this led to the partition of the country, communal riots and killings and also a large scale migration of people across the dividing line.
Jagmohan himself avoided death by a whisker. In one of his recent books, he recalled the horrible event that he encountered in the night intervening August 14 and 15, 1947: " I stood on the roof of our house in Hafizabad (now in Pakistan) where I got stranded due to the sudden eruption of violent disturbances. I saw the outer portion of the town burning furiously. Huge fires leapt straight towards the dark and cloudy sky. Even the air, frozen by fear, stood still. Thousands perished – speared, shot or burnt. These communal events may have something to do with me deciding to drop using my surname."
After remaining prisoner for about four months in the protection camp, Jagmohan was moved, as a seriously sick boy, to the Indian side of the border, from where he proceeded to Delhi and joined other family members for permanent stay in the capital. His poor health and lack of facilities and resources notwithstanding, he completed his college education and joined the State service of Punjab & and later Delhi. He soon made his mark as an able organizer with ambition and hustle. His talent was spotted by a galaxy of top civil servants of the ICS era, such as A.D. Pandit, Bhagwan Sahay, Dr A.N. Jha and V. Vishwanathan, who held the office of Lt. Governor at that time. As implementation Commissioner and later as Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority, Jagmohan executed firmly the Clearance cum resettlement – Redevelopment schemes which had been approved by the union cabinet and the Parliament. But vested interests in land grabbing & encroachment wanted to stop his work by labelling it as demolitions. So in the Post emergency regime- Jagmohan was subjected to a savage campaign of calumny. A bundle of lies were spun around Jagmohans development work around Turkman Gate.
Based on his service record and recommendations made by top civil servants, he was honoured, on January 26, 1971, with the award of Padma Shri by the President of India, "for formulation and implementation of the Delhi Master Plan and for playing a pioneering role in planning and implementation of projects in Delhi". He was functioning as the Vice-Chairman of Delhi Development Authority
With a merger revolving fund of just Rs. Five crores, Jagmohan launched a large number of land acquisition and development schemes, showcasing how development effort could be financed by creating facilities – thus increasing the value of the state land resources. For a series of innovations of this genre, good management skills, and for "his meritorious services to the country" he was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1977. As Implementation Commissioner, and later as Vice-Chairman, Delhi Development Authority, Jagmohan executed, with his usual zeal, the various Parliament approved schemes of Clearance-cum-Resettlement-cum Redevelopment which the vested interests in politics labelled as demolition drives.
And Jagmohan then came into the limelight and is still in the headlines because of his reign as governor in Jammu and Kashmir when the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits started.
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