Amid lockdown, Civil Secretariat opens partially in Kashmir

The Civil Secretariat in Srinagar opened partially in Jammu and Kashmir today -- the first instance in 148 years that the entire secretariat could not be moved to Srinagar from Jammu, the Union Territory's summer and winter capitals respectively.

Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir):After a gap of six months, the Civil Secretariat on Monday opened partially in Srinagar amid the lockdown imposed to prevent further spread of novel Coronavirus.

As per the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the civil secretariat in Srinagar, the Union Territory's summer capital, will work partially and only employees from the Kashmir valley will attend office on rotation basis to maintain social distancing protocols for prevention of COVID-19.

The Jammu wing of the Civil Secretariat will be open and employees residing in Jammu region will attend to the offices there on rotation basis.

This is for the first time in the 148 years of Darbar Move history when it could not be shifted completely to Srinagar. As part of the practice of the Dogra monarch Maharaja Ranbir Singh, civil secretariat would work for six months each in Jammu and Srinagar.

On Monday, Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu was given 'Guard of Honor' by police in Srinagar's civil secretariat and due to COVID-19, media persons, except for videographers of Department of Information and Public Relations, were not allowed to cover the function.

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Earlier, the government had said that 'Darbar Move' will completely reopen in Srinagar on June 15 depending on the COVID-19 situation. As a norm, the civil secretariat would reopen completely in Srinagar in the first week of May, but the COVID 19 pandemic compelled the government to delay its opening by over a month.

Senior officials, including Administrative Secretaries of different departments and lakhs of official files will remain in the Jammu Wing, which will impact the work in Srinagar.

An official in the civil secretariat told ETV Bharat that opening of the secretariat means nothing given that all files and administrative officers will work in Jammu.

He said that people whose grievances and issues are looked into the offices of the civil secretariat could not be able to come due to lockdown. "So, practically officials and employees in Srinagar Wing will be attending offices with no work," he said.

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Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had termed the partial opening of the civil secretariat as "mindless rubbish".

"This order regarding the bi-annual 'durbar move' is just mindless rubbish at worst & needless tokenism at best. So the offices can’t shift to Srinagar because of #Covid_19, I get that. What I don’t get is what Srinagar secretariat will do without files or senior officers?”

"This order of two 'functioning secretariats' will just create confusion because no one will know which secretariat to approach to get their work done. It would be better to withdraw this order & just delay the move of offices till the #Covid_19 threat has passed."

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Jammu and Kashmir is the only place in the country with two capitals - Srinagar and Jammu - where every year the secretariat is shifted: in May to Srinagar and October-November to Jammu.

This traditional practice of Darbar Move has been in vogue since 1872 when then Dogra autocrat ruler Dogra ruler Maharaja Ranbir Singh had started it. It incurs over 200 crore of expenditure biannually.

Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had in 1987 tried to stop this practice when he had issued orders to keep the secretariat open in Srinagar throughout the year. However, the decision evoked an angry reaction in Jammu region where lawyers and political parties agitated against it, forcing Abdullah to rescind the decision.