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Abandoned four years ago to save nearly Rs 200 crore worth of public exchequer spent on shifting of government and its offices from one place to another every six months, the 150-year-old tradition of Darbar Move between Jammu and Srinagar — the two capital cities of Jammu and Kashmir — is back with civil secretariat and other departments set to close their offices in Srinagar after office hours on October 31.
Apart from all the departments of the Civil Secretariat, including the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, offices of the heads of 38 other departments, such as Revenue, Forests, Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Electoral Officer, Jammu and Kashmir Board of Technical Education, Transport Commissioner, and Custodian General, will be relocating in full from Srinagar to Jammu.
Another 47 departments, including Sericulture, Horticulture, Geology & Mining, and Economics & Statistics, will be relocating to Jammu in a camp.
It is a bi-annual shifting of the Civil Secretariat and other offices of the UT Administration from Jammu to Srinagar before the onset of summer and vice versa in winter. Until 2021, when the tradition was broken by the LG administration, government offices used to shut in Jammu on the last Friday and Saturday of April and reopen in Srinagar on the first Monday after a gap of a week. Likewise, with the onset of winter, offices in Kashmir used to shut on the last Friday and Saturday of October and reopen in Jammu on the first Monday after a week’s gap in November.
Started in 1872 by Maharaja Gulab Singh, the first Dogra ruler of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state, which included the present-day Union Territory of Ladakh and also the areas of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), with an idea to take his administration nearer to the people living in regions far off from Jammu, the then seat of power in the state.
Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh, which are very different from one another geographically, linguistically, and culturally, in those days were poorly connected by road. It is generally understood that the Durbar Move was started to take the administration to the doorstep of the people of Kashmir, which is closer to Ladakh.
During the summer, ruling from Kashmir also helped in ensuring adequate supplies to Ladakh, which is closer to Kashmir than Jammu, before the winter snowfall would cut off Ladakh. The practice also enabled greater interaction and bonding among the people of Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The effort
Until 2019, the administration used to engage hundreds of trucks and buses for carrying office records and officials from one capital city to another. For safe transportation, the Jammu and Kashmir police and paramilitary forces would dominate the entire Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
Apart from the expenses incurred on hiring trucks and buses, the moving staff numbering nearly 10,000 also used to be paid TA and DA, besides arrangements for their accommodation.
The criticism
Voices of protest from the BJP and its sister organisations started in Jammu during the late 1980s, over the amount of money and time spent on the exercise. However, as the practice enjoyed widespread public support, the then government of Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah decided to bifurcate the Secretariat by permanently keeping some departments in Kashmir and some in Jammu. However, people at the latter place observed a bandh for nearly 45 days as a protest, leading to the government withdrawing its decision.
Criticism of the Darbar Move tradition grew post-2019 on grounds of government spending nearly Rs 200 crore on this exercise every year, when it did not have enough funds even to pay salaries to its employees.
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court, while disposing of a public interest litigation in 2020, observed that there was no legal justification or constitutional basis for the Darbar Move tradition. Pointing out that the practice has resulted in wastage of tremendous amount of time, efforts and energy on inefficient and unnecessary activity, a Division Bench comprising then Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal observed that valuable resources of the state (financial and physical) cannot be diverted to completely non-essential usage when the Union Territory in unable to provide even basic essentials to its people.
The court recommended that, in case the practice was rationalised, the resources and time saved could be utilised towards the welfare and development of the UT; the money saved could also be used to address Covid-related issues like food shortage, unemployment, and healthcare.
Post High Court suggestion
The UT government in 2021 decided to switch to e-governance, with all the office records converted into digital format. During the summer, when Secretariat employees and some offices moved from Jammu to Srinagar that year, only sensitive records were shifted from one place to another.
In June 2021, the practice was stopped by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, citing the administration’s transition to an e-office system, which was projected to save around Rs 200 crore annually. Later, following public demand for restoring the practice, the administration ordered bi-annual movement of senior bureaucrats from one capital city to another, but the full Darbar Move was not restored.
Restoring the move
Restoring the practice was one of the key promises made by the National Conference during the 2024 assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir. And on Thursday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah fulfilled this promise on completion of his government’s one year in office.
The government has asked the State Government Transport Corporation (SRTC) to make available sufficient number of buses in good condition for transportation of employees and issue tickets in advance to the employees for their destinations, besides arranging a crane and two empty buses to accompany each convoy on November 1 and 2 so as to avoid inconvenience to the employees in case of breakdown of any bus en route.
It has also asked the police to escort the Darbar Move convoys and ensure that it is given precedence in crossing the Banihal-Qazigund Tunnel and the Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Tunnel.
The Health & Medical Education Department shall make arrangements for medical aid facilities at Qazigund, Banlhal, Ramsu, Ramban, Chenani, Udhampur & Jhajjar Kotli on the days when the employees travel from Srinagar to Jammu, it ordered, asking the moving employee not to occupy any government/ EP/municipal/residential accommodation except under a proper allotment order. However, employees can retain government accommodation allotted to them at Srinagar for bonafide use of their families under intimation to the Estates Department, on approved terms and conditions.
Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department has been asked to ensure that Ration Counters are set up at appropriate Iocations around residential colonies of move employees in Jammu, so as to ensure adequate supply of ration.
Special Move TA shall be paid at the uniform rate of Rs. 25,000 per employee, the government order said, adding that the General Administration Department shall establish Winter Secretariat at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar.
All the Administrative Departments have been asked to detach the staff, if any, attached by them from the subordinate offices of Kashmir Division by or before October 27, with further directions to the SSP (Security), Civil Secretariat to withdraw the temporary identity cards from the attached staff and submit a report to the General Administration Department before the closure of offices in Srinagar.
