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| J&K Govt comes out of hiding, begins 'clumsy' image repair | | After 8 days of flood-fury! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Sept 15: Exactly after 8 days of submergence of Srinagar and other parts of Valley apart from devastation in almost all districts of Jammu region, State Government has come out of hiding only to start what is being termed as clumsy image repair.
Government has returned to the Civil Secretariat and Babus are back on job. Though Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was visible in the Sate as well as Army aircraft besides being on various national television channels, his entire Cabinet alongwith bureaucrats and police officers had gone missing with none traceable. Since the internet and mobile services were down, tracing the sate government had become extremely difficult.
Some fortunate ones saw some signs of the government either at the technical airport or Srinagar International Airport. As soon as the water level began receding, signs of government began re-emerging with Chief Secretary Iqbal Khanday issuing a government directing the government officials to report back on duties immediately. This order created a furore with delinquent officials knocking at the doors of various political parties with pleas of requesting the government to withdraw the order.
Ironically, three senior officers namely Asgar Hussain Samoon, Bipul Pathak and Mohammed Shafi Rather who had been deployed as Special Relief Commissioners to oversee and monitor the rescue, relief and rehabilitation were seen nowhere on the ground. While Samoon and Shafi had been stationed in Anantnag and Bandipora respectively, Bipul Pathak joined the office of Divisional Commissioner, Jammu but seemingly made little or no movement out of his office to find out whether the government officials were carrying out relief and rescue operation or not.
Reliance has been more on the ground reports being received by the Divisional Commissioner's office in Jammu as well as Kashmir. None is ready to walk on the ground to find out whether relief is being distributed by the government agencies or not. The Special Relief Commissioners had been assigned the task of coordinating with all the departments for restoration of public utilities, supervision of the assessment of loss to the government as well as private property besides preparing comprehensive report of damages and submitting daily based reports of relief, rescue and rehabilitation measures.
These three Relief Commissioners had been given administrative as well as financial powers for due discharge of their duties. But much of the relief in Jammu as well as Kashmir region in the affected areas is being distributed by the private individuals, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), business groups, universities, colleges and schools. Apart from this, the government today ordered that it would start functioning in the Civil Secretariat from September 18, 2014.
Thus, making it amply clear that there was no functional government in Jammu and Kashmir for the last more than 8 days. All had run away to save their lives leaving Army, NDRF, IAF alongwith teams of various media houses, private individuals, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and business groups to do all the rescue, relief and rehabilitation work. The government further order on Monday that state government offices shall observe no holidays on Saturdays and Sundays except educational institutions till the closure of the offices on account of Durbar move.
The government officials who came out of bunkers further ordered to divide Srinagar city into three zones putting Secretary Higher Education Sheikh Mushtaq Ahmed, Commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Dr. G.N.Qasba and Managing Director (MD) of J&K Cable Car Corporation Tufail Mattoo as incharge of these zones. They have been assigned the task of cleaning-up Srinagar city and told to work with Housing and Urban Development Department.
Five other officers have been asked to report in the office of Principal Resident Commissioner (PRC) New Delhi on temporary basis to assist Principal Resident Commissioner (PRC) New Delhi in the Relief and Rehabilitation measures in connection with the recent floods in the state. These officers include Additional Secretary Higher Education Charandeep Singh, Additional Secretary GAD Puneet Sharma, Deputy Secretary Health Soheel Noor Shah, Administrative Officer of FC (Revenue) Raj Mohammed and Under Secretary to Home Department Mohit Raina.
They have been assigned the task of looking after relief and rehabilitation activities including coordination with Government of India departments, providing information to various agencies apart from collecting donations for Chief Minister's Relief Fund. This has been done after more than 8 days of the submergence of entire Srinagar city. Much more is required to be done and that too at the lightning pace. Whether the government does it or fails, would depend more on how the Chief Minister keeps an close eye on those working under him. |
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