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| Bitter pill of Durbar move has to be swallowed | | |
The shutdown and protest rallies usually greet the opening of Government offices in the summer in Srinagar and in the winter in Jammu.During the last 15 years the shutdown seems to have become a part of the biannual Durbar move.For several months issues and problems,'most of them people related,pile up,whether in Kashmir or in Jammu,and the moment the Government offices open in either the winter capital or the summer capital there is shutdown and protest rallies.It is done simply to awaken the Government.And invariably the successive Governments have not been jolted out of slumber by these shutdowns and protest demonstrations.In view of this development one question has started doing the round in the state during the last over a decade.Is it in the interests of the state to retain this 138 year old tradition ?Is this tradition suitable for the political economic structure of the State ?Well an exercise was carried out to discard this tradition even
after several offices and departments were split thereby facilitating people to have some Directorate level offices in both the winter and the summer capitals of the state.A serious exercise was made in the early 80's when Dr Farooq Abdullah was the Chief Minister.His idea of getting the matter examined and reviewed by a committee was strengthened when during his visit to Srinagar in the winter of 1986-87 the then Prime Minister,Rajiv Gandhi,felt that when the valley needed it the Government was in Jammu.The matter was reviewed by the committee of officers which had made certain recommendations.But the Government,according to a member of the committee,bungled while trying to implement the recommendations of the committee.Instead more departments were bifurcated.Even then the demand for bifurcation of various other departments does not seem to end.Economically the tradition of the Durbar move is a major burden on the state exchequer as it costs between
Rs.50 and Rs.70 crores a year.Can a cash starved state bear this luxury ?More important is the negative impact on the working in the move offices and in the civil secretariat as over 40 days are lostin the closing of reopening of the offices.There has been a demand from the two regions that the number of move offices be curtailed by bifurcating all those offices.In addition to this there should be the system of setting up summer secretariat in Jammu and winter secretariat in Srinagar.However,this practice has not yielded desired results because during the summer months majority of ministers and senior bureaucrats avoid visiting Jammu and during the winter months they are reluctant to spend days and weeks in Srinagar.In view of these fallibilities in the 138-year Durbar move system political anaylysts do not support discarding the tradition.Over the years the state has witnessed unprecedented rise in regional tension.Those in the Jammu region clamour
over discrimination of the people of the region.Those in Kashmir campaign against alleged moves to change state's demography and against other issues including human rights violations.At times the regional divide has assumed the shape of communal divide and tension.These analysts say that the only system that promotes a link between the two regions is the tradition of Durbar move.They opine that if all the Government departments are bifurcated and a separate civil secretariats start operating in Srinagar and Jammu it will result in the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir which could go against the interest of the country.Hence the bitter pill of Durbar move has to be swallowed.(
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