The capital just moved

Every year,as the days get warmer in Jammu,the Durbar—Civil Secretariat and other government offices—moves to Srinagar. Like it did last week. It will stay in Srinagar till it’s time for the return journey to Jammu in winter.

The Durbar move was started by Dogra ruler Maharaja Hari Singh in 1872. The process burdens the state exchequer with around Rs 50 crore every year but the government has failed to find an alternative to this.

Every year,on the last Friday of April,the momentous task of shifting the capital kicks off. On April 26 this year,after the politicians and bureaucrats had left the Civil Secretariat,Bhat and his colleagues braced themselves for the long shift. They had to pack thousands of official documents into tin trunks and gunny sacks to ensure all the official papers were ready before the Durbar opened in Srinagar.

The packing of files started simultaneously in all 41 departments of the Secretariat. The process was tedious—each official document was first sorted,the documents pertaining to similar cases were clubbed and the files were put into tin trunks or gunny sacks. The trunks and sacks were then sealed,and marked with stickers. “If a file is misplaced or damaged,the clerk who packed it and unpacked it is responsible,” said Bhat,a clerk in the Public Health and Engineering department. “But thank God,complaints have been few and far between.”

Besides the files,the computers of ministers,officers and clerks were also shifted. In some departments,even the photocopying machines were shifted. “When we buy a computer or a machine,we keep the packaging intact and use it during the transfer,” says Bhat.

After the trunks and gunny sacks were loaded onto vehicles,they set out for a 300-km journey to Srinagar under tight security. It took a day for the convoy to wind up at Srinagar.

At the Srinagar Civil Secretariat,an advance party of six members from each department received the files. “As the trunks were unloaded here,we checked for the stickers and sent these boxes to their respective sections,” says the 38-year-old Bhat.

Once the boxes reached their sections,Bhat and others called it a day. They returned the next day,wearing masks. “The secretariat remains closed for six months and is filled with dust,” he said. “Most of us suffer from throat infections after completing our work.”

It takes generally more than a week for Bhat and the others to put every file in place. Once that’s done,the members of the advance party have to call the telecom department to restore the telephone lines of their officers,put curtains in place and supervise the cleaning and dusting of the offices. “We have to be there all along,” says Bhat. “We can’t afford to leave the offices till they’re ready.”