“DARBAR MOVE” A burden on State Exchequer

5 Dariya News (Syed Shakir Amin)

Srinagar 03-Nov-2015

The biannual Darbar Move –– a practice of shifting government offices from one capital to another (300 km distant) –– is going on in Jammu and Kashmir these days.In the winter capital Jammu the state secretariat including Chief Minister’s office and the Governor’s house gets closed down on 28th of April and  resumes in the summer capital Srinagar in the first week of May and alternatively the state secretariat including Chief Minister’s office and the Governor’s house has closed down in Srinagar capital on 31st of last month  and will resume in Jammu in the first week of this month.The trend of alternatively transmitting the offices from one place to another has been continuously going on since 1872, when Kashmir was ruled by Maharaja Gulab Singh and the purpose of the practice at that time was to avoid the extremely unpleasant weather conditions (the winter in Srinagar and the Summer in Jammu). But now it is commonly believed that this 140-year old exercise of shifting the offices is only a burden on the the exchequer.

From time to time the Government has tentatively mooted the idea of discontinuing the practice. But since the wintering officials pump quite a lot of money into the Jammu economy, the people of that city are strongly opposed to any change. No doubt the move is becoming more controversial with each passing year; it is a waste of time and money and it is inconvenient but the problem is to find a mutually acceptable alternative.The Government hesitates to abolish the “Darbar Move” mainly for fear that it would increase the feeling of alienation between Muslim Kashmir and Hindu Jammu.As per reports at least,  Darbar Move practice costs about Rs 50 crore to transmit about seven thousand employees from one place to another and then to make accommodation and the security arrangements for these government servants in both the places i.e, in Srinagar and Jammu.

Usually the offices in Srinagar are closed down in the month of October to move Jammu and they stop functioning at Jammu in this month to get shifted in Srinagar. The official documents and the files are being ferried in hundreds of trucks every time the Darbar shifts (twice a year) and during the process of shifting, the offices remain closed at least for about two weeks every time.It is a common belief here that the Darbar Move practice is wastage of money and the time. People of both the regions, Srinagar and Jammu face grievances when the important government offices shift from their places. All the divisional and district level administrations become invalidate and the administration almost gets crumpled in the region where from offices shift.“If Jammu & Kashmir High court and other private institutions can operate from both the places, why not civil secretariat?"

The wasteful expenditure on Darbar Move can be utilised for providing jobs to the unemployed youth of the state. The state government should fork the departments by creating separate directorates on the outline of DIC headed by common secretaries which to a large extent could save the state exchequer from the evitable expenditure incurred on Darbar move every year.To facilitate the shifting of office records and staff to the  Srinagar/Jammu  after the Darbar closes in Jammu/Srinagar newspapers every year reads like this- "Today, vehicles will be allowed to move from Srinagar to Jammu but no vehicle will be allowed to move on the highway in the opposite direction."Here the matter of concern is that common  people even patients remain stranded either in Jammu or Srinagar while Darbar move is being facilitated ignoring patient and common people thus adding trouble to their life .Interestingly, every time when office are about to move from one place to another place, the practice is being questioned and it becomes a point of debate in the state. Regarding Darbar move, the question on the responsive and effective administration has been raised so many times in the past but all in vain.

Unfortunately for ministers, it remains early "Darbar move" as most of the ministers use to lock their office chambers in the civil secretariat Srinagar and  flow to Jammu, perhaps to be in a relaxed mood ahead of  offices in the winter capital.This year history was repeated by the BJP-PDP collation ministers and MLA's by moving to jammu before the time as manipulated by authorities. It is not going only with the Kashmir division. But remained happening with the jammu division also. When darbar had to close in jammu ministers and MLA's used to move srinagar before the time to to take breathe and enjoy in the moderate climate of srinagar. The trend however had been adding more trouble to the life of common people.