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| Govt pays through nose on Darbar Move | | Distancing with practice ‘impossible’? | | Mishu Gupta
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu,Apr 30:-
In the cash strapped state of J&K struggling with financial crisis on several fronts, even as the age old practice of annual Darbar Move is a costly affair. dispensing with the shifting of the offices during the summer and winter months involving huge expenditure is next to impossible. Reason: it carries with itself the tags of political, psychological and economic compulsions and defying the same is fraught with serious implications .Only a moveunder consideration years back invited widespread resentment and agitation in Jammu for apparent reasons.
Darbar Move offices closed in the winter capital yesterday and will reopen at Summer capital on May 9. The cumbersome tradition which involves shifting of entire administrative machinery between the two state capitals defies economic logic but political compulsions have always prevailed over it. Officially stated, the exercise costs Rs 40 crore every year. But in real terms when the expenditures are taken in totality, Darbar Move costs more than Rs 60 crore for the government which is struggling hard to get funds from centre to meet ever increasing expenditures on various fronts.
Since the practice involves packaging of entire official records for shifting the same to other state capital for next six months besides shifting of nearly 7000 employees, the transportation of official records and staff in a fleet of SRTC trucks and buses, including private carriers alone costs Rs 10 crore, according to sources.
While Jammu-based darbar move employees, who shift to Srinagar every summer put up in private hotels and lodges hired by the state government, the employees who come to winter capital in October are mostly accommodated in the government quarters available in various localities. The system of hiring private hotels in safe and secure zones of Srinagar was necessitated on account of security reasons due to militancy. However, the employees from Jammu have lately been nourishing grouse and grumblings for what they complain about boarding, lodging as well as food arrangements in the hotels provided by the state Estates Department is not up to their expectations.
.This is despite the fact that government spends crores of rupees for making things comfortable and smooth on every front. While every year the government says it spends Rs 4.50 crore on the carriage and transportation of official records and 7,000 employees, including judicial and police, an exorbitant amount of over Rs 30 crore is spent on boarding and lodging of employees. That is one of the reasons as to why the staff not happy with arrangements on certain fronts feel the funds spent are not proportionate to the arrangements in place.
One more front that involves huge expenditure related with Darbar Move employee is the Move allowance each and every employee associated with theMove is entitled to. Iirrespective of the designation, employees, including officers and even senior bureaucrats and ministers, parity has been maintained in this allowance which at present is at Rs 5000 per move, which means in a year they get a Rs 10000 when Darbar shifts back to Jammu. In addition to this the employees also get nearly two thousand annually as DA related with Move.
.Besides ministers, around 300 bureaucrats out of a total of 559 (including IAS and KAS cadre) would also move to the cool climes of Srinagar for the next six months
This despite the fact that the state has five lakh unemployed youths and empty coffers when it comes to paying over 4.50 lakh employees arrears as per the Sixth Pay Commission report
Durbar Move from Jammu to Srinagar means shifting of thousands of employees including around 300 bureaucrats out of a total of 559 (including IAS and KAS cadre) to the cool climes of Srinagar for the next six months and their coming back to the pleasant weather of Jammu in October again which protects the government machinery from chilly and harsh winter of Kashmir for six months.
Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country having the distinction of the two capitals in Srinagar and Jammu. The tradition of shifting State secretariat from one capital to the other dates back to 1872, the era of Maharaja Gulab Singh.
This is the practice which started during royal rule of the Maharajas. But now it has assumed highly sensitive and emotional proposition over the years. The interests in both the capitals are such that government cannot do away or abandon this practice.
“How can Darbar move be stopped? Locating the state capital either at Jammu or Srinagar will only amount to lot of inconvenience to the people of the other region, who will be deprived of seeking redressal of the problems from quite a distance,” says Ram Kumar, a local trade union activist who believes that the practice was started keeping in view the plights of the people of the Jammu and Kashmir divisions.
He also feels that the mechanism is important for the identity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir as a single administrative unit. However, there only there are others who believe that Darbar move has nothing positive as two vital months in a financial year are wasted while shifting of staff from one region to the other.
“This certainly puts extra burden on the state exchequer which is already grappling with resource crunch. It is commonly harsh truth that a major portion of the state budget is consumed in the shape of the wage bill of nearly 4 lakh employees leaving little to be utilized on the developmental projects”, says Daya Ram, an employee working in PHE department.
“Darbar move also unfolds numerous problems on the housing front. This practice forces the state administration to have residential units, one each at Jammu and Srinagar, for those employees, who shift to the respective capital on rotational basis,” he adds.
“Where hardly any day passes without protests, strikes and bandhs in the state, the city on a whole enthusiastically is preparing for the Annual Darbarmove. This trend of Darbar move causes additional discomfort to residents, then why to continue with this undue obligation? ”, says Raghuvansh Katoch, a government employee.
.“Now it is the time to stop this practice of Darbar move and the expenditure incurred on it should be utilized on other fronts. It should be ended as it also causes discomfort to residents …..There are a large number of unemployed people in the state, why not to generate new ventures for the unemployed youth in the state”, he argues
“Where the state is lacking progress in many fields, this practice of Darbar move, which now moreover has become a political necessity to keep intact the diverse identity of the state, is smoothly paving its way in the state as a ‘gratuitous compulsion’….” says Ritesh.
Big Relief for commuters !
INBOX
While the debate on continuance of age old practice of Darbar or stopping it has been going on for some years, shifting of the entire government machinar alsoe means a lot of relief and convenience to the people in Jammu in terms of heavy congestion on roads due to VIP movements and opening of the roads that are closed due to security reasons. Of all the roads, the stretch from Petrol Pump near Civil Secretarait upto Shiv Temple at Shalamar which remains closed with heavy deployment of security staff outside the Secretariat premises has been opened for vehicular traffic. It means a big relief in the scorching heat for both commuters and vehicle owners as it will save both time and fuel that is exhausted in taking long routes to reach a point of few yards away when the Secretariat is functional here.
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