BJP Tuesday said that the party is not against abandoning the century-old practice of shifting Civil Secretariat biannually, but wanted that those offices which can work at both the capitals of the state should be run as per the requirement.“Some offices should work in both the capitals as per requirement of the people,” BJP JK President Sat Sharma told KNS.Sharma said that BJP will run the governance as per the “policy matter” of the state.Sharma’s stand was, however, contrary to the BJP spokesman Virendra Gupta’s statement who said that the state offices should be “bifurcated”. BJP leader and speaker Assembly Kavinder Gupta has endorsed the party spokesman’s stand saying that practice costs the state exchequers heavily.“The practice of ‘Darbar move’ should be abandoned. There should be bifurcation of the state offices,” state BJP spokesperson Virender Gupta said.However, BJP state president said that “it is his (Virendra Gupta’s) own stand.Gupta’s statement comes two days after the Secretariat reopened in Srinagar after functioning for six months in Jammu.Opposition Congress said that the statement of the BJP spokesman is a “wishful thinking and publicity stint”.
Congress chief spokesman and senior leader from Jammu, Ravinder Sharma, told KNS that if the BJP is serious about bifurcating the offices, let the party come up with a proposal as it is in the government.“Congress party is for meeting the aspirations of the people of all regions of the state. What BJP has said about bifurcating offices and abandoning Darbar move is wishful thinking and publicity stunt which the party has been doing from 2014,” Sharma told KNS.Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) spokesman Mehboob Beg said that “no such matter has been discussed” in the party.“PDP has a governance alliance with BJP. Whatever BJP says as a party that is their own politics,” Beg told KNS, adding that such issues and statements have political consequences in the entire state.In 2012 then chief minister Omar Abdullah had questioned the wisdom of continuing with the 140 year old tradition of shifting capitals in the state, saying “it is wastage of money and an escapist move”.“Do I think the ‘Durbar move’ (shifting of capital) is a waste of money? Yes I do. Is there an alternative? I haven't seen a viable alternative suggested. We run away when people need us most and (they) face the most difficulty. The Darbar move is escapist,” Omar had tweeted.The Darbar move is a Dogra-era practice of shifting offices biannually to Srinagar and Jammu in which thousands of employees and files are ferried in buses and trucks on the 300-km long treacherous Srinagar-Jammu highway, at whooping Rs 40 crore state expenditure. (KNS)