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| ‘Darbar Move’ an unnecessary exercise | | | Vikram Gour | 10/21/2010 10:05:56 PM |
| In a discussion with a Delhi based newspaper recently a suggestion of discontinuing long standing practice of Darbar Move by some Kashmir based politicians and individuals, calling it a Feudalistic and money wasting exercise, have stirred the nest on a subject that really calls for rational expression of opinions by all concerned. And the concerned are people from all the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
‘Darbar Move’ should be viewed in relation to the advantages and/or disadvantages that accrue out of the ‘Move’ (twice in 12-months) to the common man as also the change of available means of administrative working of the civil secretariat and other allied departments. Discontinuation of the Darbar Move should not be and cannot be effected because it is a relic of the feudal system of Dogra Rulers. Such type of reasoning is unhealthy and creates bad blood among the regions.
The Dogra Rulers started it at a time when absence of the rulers from one region would completely cut off the region because of lack communication, transportation and administrative control. The then rulers could not afford to isolate one region for all the 12-months. The people could not be deprived of direct approach to the ruler of the time neither could ruler leave the region unattended for all times. Therefore the necessity and urgency at that time compelled the rulers to keep Darbar moving and since the state enjoyed the nature’s gift of best weather conditions in its various regions round the year, who else except the king of the state would choose to enjoy the best of the climatic conditions of his state. It was only the king and his personal office along with his administrative heads who would move and not the entire government.
However, this tradition has been carried forward for the last 63 years without even thinking whether or not it is worthwhile to spend crores of rupees every year on Darbar Move and whether it is useful for the common man (in both major regions of the state) who waits and suffers for six long months away from the administration that has to take care of his day to day administrative problems as also the effective governance as a whole. The Darbar Move also takes away annually almost two working months of the civil secretariat and the administrative work remains stand still to the great disadvantage of the common man.
An attempt was made in 1988 by the then Chief Minister to stop Darbar Move more for political reasons than for economic or administrative convenience in mind. Consequently, there was strong agitation in Jammu against the suggestion made and the move was shelved.
Anyway, since the times have changed and there is a revolution in methods of communication, transportation and means of governance due to the latest information technology available that makes it possible for people sitting in different parts of the world to sit in video-conference and decide matters directly and convey discions in matter of seconds, we must think afresh about whether it is worthwhile to spend enormous amount of public money in shifting offices twice every year and creating and maintaining huge infrastructure like ministerial bungalows, office buildings, residential accommodation and transportation facilities for the entire ministry and their staff in both the provinces that remains vacant for six months at the cost of great public convenience.
This unique expensive practice of Darbar Move for an extremely financially deficit state, is something serious to deliberate upon. If such a practice is not beneficial for the public at large why not dispense with it and have head quarter of the state government at one place.
Then in that case where should head quarter of the state be?
The capital of the state may be located on basis of merit at a place where it is most suitable for the people of the state. The first name that comes forth is that of Kashmir. Let us see the merits or demerits of having Kashmir Valley as capital of the J&K. As everybody knows the working season in the Kashmir Valley is of only three months in a year because of extreme cold conditions during winter. And during the working season of three months we have hardly seen a period that was trouble free and peaceful. This year was the worst in this respect when the government in Kashmir could not function for more than 15-20 days and the entire working period remained paralyzed. This sort of situation in the Valley takes away almost 4-5 working months in a year. The disturbed condition in a small part of state paralyses the working of the entire state if government is in valley. Added to this is the attitude of a small section of the Kashmiri population that does not tolerate people from other regions of the state and they are continuously under threat. Consequently the entire working of the government suffers.
As against this if Jammu is adopted as capital city of the state and the government functions from Jammu itself it will have full 12-months of working period in absolutely peaceful atmosphere without any hindrance from any quarter. Jammu, therefore, is the ideal choice for a capital city.
If however, Jammu as capital city exclusively is not acceptable to certain quarters for obvious reasons then another option that can be considered in public interest is to have both the cities as capitals and place the ministries on 50:50 bases both in Jammu and in Kashmir and allocate the administrative and ministerial staff in such a manner that all the ministries function equally and effectively in both the provinces. For example, if we have Cabinet Minister of a ministry in Kashmir we may have Minister of State of the same ministry in Jammu and similarly if there is Cabinet Minister in Jammu then MOS may be placed in Kashmir. Similarly if we have Secy/Comr in Valley we may have special Secy in Jammu. And of course, all placed permanently either in Jammu or in Kashmir. And such offices should be independent in their working so as to cause minimum inconvenience to public. Similarly Minister in charge of Ladakh Affairs can be placed in Leh itself. The Chief Minister and the ministers can keep moving as and when required for only specific purpose. Such an arrangement if effected will go a long way to solve and mitigate public problems and save enormous amount of money for our state exchequer.
The benefits of such a move can be easily enumerated as under:-
a) Huge infrastructure of office buildings, residential houses, ministerial bungalows, Raj Bhawan etc will be spared for use which otherwise remain closed for 6-months.
b) State will save enormous amount of money that is spent on upkeep and maintenance of infrastructure and shifting of government offices with thousands of government officials every six months.
c) The problems of the general public faced by them on account of the absence of offices of central secretariat for six months in both the provinces will be solved to a large extent.
d) The working period of the government will be increased by about two months that is otherwise wasted in shifting of offices.
e) The capital cities will be decongested in respect of traffic and increased population for six months.
f) All the provinces will enjoy some amount of independence in working.
With so many benefits to the common man the ruling class of politicians ( that always swears by common man) and beaurocrats can sacrifice the luxury of moving every six months to comfortable climate zone.
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