Srinagar: CPI-M leader M Y Tarigami Friday said that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s announcement that the administration has completely transitioned to an e-office, after which the 149-year-old biannual Darbar Move was no longer needed, “has left several questions unanswered” and which the government must clarify.
After the announcement, the administration on June 30 also cancelled the allotment of residential accommodations of Darbar Move employees in Jammu and Srinagar. The employees have been given 21 days to vacate their accommodations.
“However, the question remains, where will Chief Secretary, Director General of Police (DGP), administrative secretaries and other senior officers remain seated? If they work digitally, wherefrom will they operate physically? If people have to meet any officer, where will they meet him or her? There is no clarity on this issue,” Tarigami, former legislator from Kulgam, pointed out in a statement here.
“Wherefrom the Raj Bhawan will work? As and when elections are held in J&K, wherefrom the Assembly will operate, and wherefrom the Chief Minister and his council of ministers will work?” Tarigami asked while adding that there is no clarity on all these questions in the recent announcement by the administration.
“If the allotment of residential accommodations of Darbar Move employees in Jammu and Srinagar has been cancelled, where will they be stationed now?”
He said there is no clarity over all these issues and it has created uncertainty amid the prevailing tough times.
“The government must come up with a proper plan and mechanism as to how they intend to operate the Civil Secretariat and its affiliated offices now,” Tarigami said.
Meanwhile, Apni Party president, Mohammad Altaf Bukhari Friday also appealed the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to revisit the decision of cancelling the practice of Darbar Move, saying the move goes against the “Prime Minister’s policy of integration”.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a party function here, Bukari said the Maharaja had started the practice “to ensure people-to-people contact between Jammu and Srinagar and not because it’s hot in Jammu in summers and cold in Kashmir in winters”.
He said canceling official accommodations of move employees is a minor issue as the present dispensation sees the official practice of Darbar Move through the prism of Rs 200 crore.
“I condemn in strong words the decision and appeal to the Lieutenant Governor to revisit the same in whole because the move contravenes Prime Ministers integration policy,” Bukhari said.
