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| Jammu tourism promotion---only promise galore—1 | | Actions do not match words | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Feb 4
News Analysis
On the heel of Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sidhanshu Panday asking all the offices still located in Mubarak Mandi complex, to vacate the same and shift their offices soon to an alternative place, for expediting the project of setting up of Dogra Heritage Centre in the Mubarak Mandi premises, the Governor, Gen. (Retd) S K Sinha, while taking round of the Mubarak Mandi complex, listed various aspects of the proposed Mubarak Mandi Dogra Heritage Centre.
Ironically, the Divisional Commissioner’s office continues to be housed within the Mubarak Mandi complex. Before stressing upon heads of other government offices for early shifting of their offices from the Mubarak Mandi complex, he should have done the same in respect of his own office. “The charity should have begun from home”. It is now for last six years and even more that we are hearing of Dogra Heritage Centre going to be setup within the historical Mubarak Mandi complex, which during the days of Dogra rulers was the seat of governance and earlier also served as residential buildings of the courtiers. But for last these years nothing practical has been done to convert the complex into a heritage centre. The shifting of High Courts and later District Courts from the premises took a pretty long time and the process was very slow. The dilapidated buildings within the premises continued to housing the district and subordinate courts, till the lawyers community forced the authorities to shift these to the new premises at Janipura, within the complex where High Courts were housed earlier. The lawyers had to launch a strong agitation for the same.
Although most of the offices have since been shifted from the complex, about a dozen offices including those of Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Estates Department, Social Welfare Board, Khadi and Village Industry Board, Government Treasury and Branch of the J&K Bank attached to the treasury, besides the offices of Directorate and Deputy Directorate of Information and Publicity just outside the main entry gate of the complex, are still housed there. The Archive Department too continues to be housed in the premises. But archives form the part of heritage and hence these need not be shifted from here. The stamp vendors and notaries still put up their make shift offices inside the premises, to cater to the needs of litigants, who avoid going to a far off Janipura for the purpose.
Besides monkeys haunting the premises, particularly the dilapidated buildings in the outer circle and interior of the complex, the main circle has become a parking lot for the government vehicles as well as private cars belonging to the residents in the vicinity of Mubarak Mandi. The premises have also become a favoured place for the morning and evening walkers, particularly the old people, who also come here for basking sun on clear days in winter. There is no sign of heritage center, since none of the projects assured to be part of the entire heritage centre, has been taken in hand. The State Governor, S K Sinha has given long list of the utility of the Centre. But his suggestion that the premises, after becoming heritage centre, can also be used for holding official functions like swearing in of the judges and oath taking ceremonies of the Chief Minister and ministers etc is unpalatable and will only mar the real purpose of setting up of heritage centre in the complex. Holding of these functions will create problems of parking as well as lead to undue rush of politicians and other important persons, leaving hardly any space for the tourists to visit the complex to have first hand account of the heritage of Jammu. Instead in the open premise light and sound and live cultural programmes displaying multiple culture and civilization of Jammu region can be held.
But what is more important is that Jammuites should not be fed with promises and assurances of a potential tourist project in the form of heritage centre to be setup in the Mubarak Mandi complex, but something should be done practical. The execution work on the project should be expedited and completed within a targeted period. The announcements of huge funds allotted by the Central government for the purpose, will not satisfy the people nor it will serve the real objective. The taste of pudding is in its eating. Something concrete should come up now, to convince the common man of the sincerity and earnestness of the authorities to promote tourism in Jammu, by offering to the visitors a place worth seeing. |
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