SRI NAGAR:The roads leading to the Civil Secretariat in the city are being cleaned and painted. The footpaths in and around the Lal Chowk area is being cleared of encroachments. The residences of ministers and bureaucrats are being renovated and refurbished. The state secretariat is buzzing with porters moving in and out with huge boxes on their heads.
It’s that time of the year again when summer ‘arrives’ in the city, officially. The Chief Minister and other ministers, the secretaries and government staff, along with the entire official paraphernalia, shift to Srinagar, again.This year, the ‘Darbar’ moves back to the ‘summer capital’ of Jammu and Kashmir on May 7.
The 146-year-old practice of biannual ‘Darbar Move’, i.e., shifting of the seat of governance from Srinagar to Jammu and vice-versa, continues despite calls from time to time to end it in view of the expenditure and the trouble involved.The tradition was started by the Maharaja Gulab Singh, in 1872 to escape the extreme weather conditions of Kashmir in winter and Jammu in summer.Every year, the government functions from Srinagar from May till October-end. The seat of governance shifts to Jammu, the ‘winter capital’, in November.
Officials said about `150 crore is being spent annually on transporting thousands of official documents, furniture, equipment etc. in trucks and buses from one city to the other every six months.The government also pays dearness allowance to the employees for the Darbar Move. The amount has risen from `6,000 in 2011 to `10,000 in 2015 and now to `15,000 in 2018. At least 5,000 employees of the Civil Secretariat and 33 government departments are part of the move. Besides, a huge cost is incurred on giving the two cities a facelift and on refurbishing the accommodations of ministers and bureaucrats.
Apart from being a drain on the state’s finances, the biannual move leaves the people of the two regions at the mercy of the district administration and divisional commissioner. In absence of the CM and ministers, people complain that officials don’t take their work seriously. People have to travel 300 km from one capital city to the other to get their official work done.
In view of these factors, there have been calls over the years to junk the tradition and keep the seat of governance permanently at one place. However, the only time the practice was stopped was in 1987, when Farooq Abdullah was the CM. He had to withdraw his order because of pressure from the Centre after a hue and cry in the Jammu region.However, the Abdullah government had formed a committee led by ex-chief secretary Sheikh Ghulam Rasool, with Muhammad Shafi Pandit and Sushma Chaudhary as members, to look into the ways to end the practice.
“We had recognised the fact that to do away with Darbar Move completely was not possible as it’s a historical legacy. We had suggested limiting the number of Move offices,” Pandit said.He said there were no separate directorates for Kashmir and Jammu at that time. “We had suggested that the departments relevant to the Valley should be kept in Srinagar and those relevant to Jammu be kept there,” he said. “We had also suggested that hostels should be set up in the two cities to accommodate officials and their families instead of hiring hotels and guesthouses.”Pandit said the recommendations were implemented in a ham-handed manner which created more problems. It led to agitation in Jammu and the government had to rescind the order.
National Conference general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said Abdullah as CM had tried to end this practice in the interest of the state’s economy. “However, the people of the other region felt it (Darbar Move) was their right and should be continued with. Besides, the Congress also politicised the issue,” he said.
Sagar said political consensus was needed to end the practice “in the greater interest of the state”, but added that the present atmosphere would not allow any government to do so.State BJP spokesman Arun Gupta said a middle path had to be found. “If only the CM, the ministers and the HoDs move, the shifting won’t have much impact on economy,” he said.
What’s the Darbar Move in J&K all about?
The tradition of Durbar Move was started by Jammu and Kashmir’s Dogra ruler, Maharaja Gulab Singh,
in 1872
J150 crore is being spent annually on transporting documents, furniture, equipment etc. from one city to the other every six months
At least 5,000 employees of the Civil Secretariat and 33 other government departments are part of the Durbar Move
Government pays dearness allowance of J15,000 to the employees for the Durbar Move