SRINAGAR: A whopping Rs 130 crore is being spent on the bi-annual shifting of the Civil Secretariat and other offices from Jammu to Srinagar and vice-versa as part of 148-year-old practice of ‘Durbar Move’ in Jammu and Kashmir.
As part of the bi-annual move, which has been stopped this year due to Covid-19 pandemic, Civil Secretariat, Raj Bhavan, police headquarters, government departments, PSUs, corporations, boards and high court main wing are shifted to Srinagar during the summer months and to Jammu in winter.
Jammu and Kashmir has two capitals — Srinagar (for six months of summer) and Jammu for (six months of winter).
According to a report submitted in the J&K High Court, a total of 10,112 employees including gazetted, non-gazetted, class-IV employees of Civil Secretariat, head of departments, organisations/boards/corporations, judiciary and legislature moved from Jammu to Srinagar in April last year as part of Durbar Move incurring total expenses of Rs 1,636.04 lakhs.
Of the total expenses, Rs 1,436.81 lakhs were spent on the head ‘Move Travel Allowance’ of employees, Rs 45.41 lakhs on loading and unloading of goods, Rs 116.55 lakhs on carriage and Rs 37.27 lakhs on other expenses.
When the Durbar shifted to Jammu in November 2019, the government increased the travel allowance for move of employees from the existing Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000.