Welcoming UT Govt’s initiative DSS calls for simultaneous secretariats at both capitals

 

Today the 20^th OCT 2020 sh. Gulchain Singh Charak, Former minister and president Dogra Sadar Sabha, J&k after consultations with the Core group of the Sabha, addressing the press conference at Sabha Bhawan welcomed the news appeared in the press that the chief secretary has sought inputs to work out modalities to revive the mechanism, for operating the summer- winter secretariats simultaneously.

Sh. charak recalled that in 1872, when Maharaja Ranbir Singh began the practice of alternating between Jammu and Srinagar every six months as the government’s seat old poser to cater for the aspiration of both the population placed distance apart with poor connectivity. Much water has gone down the rivers ever since with immense development in technology, communications

 

He said that the Dogra Sadar Sabha has welcomed the UT Government’s decision to keep both the secretariats operative by the staff on ‘where they are bases and called it was a very positive historical decision forced by nature .After its successful trial, this system should have been adopted as a permanent measure to save the wasteful crores worth of recurring annual expenditure. Make the government available to people where the governance is needed most in difficult climatic seasons.

All allocations of financial, educational, jobs and development opportunities    must be made separately to each region. This will be a more accessible system     for populations on both sides of Peer Panchal and shall grossly improve functional efficiency, attendance, thereby all round public Satisfaction levels.

 

A bench comprising Hon’ble Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal, said that the Darbar Move resulted in “wastage of tremendous amount of time, efforts and energy on inefficient and unnecessary activity (say, packing of records and carrying the hundreds of trucks after every six months to both the capitals). The Jammu and Kashmir High Court also observed that there was no “legal justification or Constitutional basis” for the Darbar Move, a 148-year-old tradition in which the capital of the region is relocated twice a year — from Srinagar to Jammu during winter months and vice-versa in the summers.

The Judgment of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court on the issue of the bi-annual move suggests that the Maharaja thought of the same “to escape the harsh winters of the Kashmir Valley, which, in the 19th century, used to result in the valley being cut off from the outside world”.

The court also noted that no “reasons or grounds are forthcoming for enabling and supporting considerations of administrative efficiency, legal justification or Constitutional basis for affecting the Durbar move”. It also underscored the need for both Jammu and Kashmir regions to receive administration and governance round the year without interruption, adding, “it is unfair and opposed to public interest to deprive either region completely of access to government machinery for six months at a time.”

The UT government must also abide by the Hon’ble J&K High Court’s verdict exposing the futility and wastefulness of the inconvenient anti-people bi-annual burdensome ritual of Durbar move.

The DSS strongly urge to stop this useless and harmful draining exercise of Darbar Move and make civil Secretariat functional at both the capitals for the whole year. The over Rs 500 Cr (in effect) saved per year can be better utilized for improving much needed medical and education infrastructures; instead of denying governance to both regions for seven months (including twice pack/unpack & move) a year and keeping secretariat away when it is most needed in hardships of each respective region.

 

To better understand the enormity of the move, here’s a statistic: 10,112 government employees shifted base from Jammu to Srinagar last year. Apart from the expenses borne by the government, each employee is also entitled to a sum of Rs 25,000 every time the offices shift. This is in addition to the monthly Temporary Move Allowance of Rs 2,000 paid to each moving employee. This also keeps the secretariat staff in a personally unsettled state of mind for all their service career and disrupting the continuity of children education and opportunities for other family members in non- shifting professions / jobs.

Urging the Hon’ble Lt Governor the DSS hopes that Shri Manoj Sinha who is known for his forward looking ideology and bold decisions will rid the state of this irrational, wasteful, avoidable and unwanted menace from the current year.

 

 

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