Darbar Move: An Invisible Elephant
Anachronistic practice of Darbar Move needs to be reviewed keeping in view the aspirations of both the regions
Dr Sirfaraz Ahmed Dar
The practice of Darbar Move is a unique administrative arrangement of Jammu Kashmir Government and a symbol of its feudal past whereby the central administrative establishment is shifted twice a year. The move critics say it causes a huge burden on the poor economy of Jammu Kashmir and incur huge inconvenience to the citizens of Jammu Kashmir.
Darbar Move is the name given to the bi-annual exercise of shifting the secretariat and all other government offices from one capital city to another. It involves housing offices from May to October in Srinagar and rest six months from November to April in Jammu.
Delhi to Daulatabad
Historicity speaking, it was Muhammad bin Tughluq who introduced the idea or practice of shifting capital from one place to another. The Sultan wanted to maintain both Delhi and Daulatabad as his capitals because both were centrally located. The new capital had its strategic value as it was safe from Mongolian invasions which constantly threatened Delhi. The Sultan also did his best to make Daulatabad a suitable place for official offices and the people. A regular postal service was established between Dehli and Daulatabad. All facilities were provided for those who were required to move to Daulatabad. A broad road was constructed for their convenience; shady trees were planted on both sides of the road still large number of people died because of rigorous travelling and scorching heat. However, when the people of Delhi hesitated to shift to Daulatabad, the Sultan got annoyed and ordered all the people of Delhi to proceed to Daulatabad with their belongings.
Agra to Kashmir
Mughals were perhaps the second rulers who introduced the practice of temporary shifting of Emperorship to Kashmir for summer season in order to escape the unbearable heat of the plains. Jahangir’s visits to Srinagar became a yearly routine. The shifting from Agra to Srinagar used to take more than a month each way and it has been described as “a city on the move”. The Emperor’s routine comprised several thousand laps forged from one tented camp to another covering about 30 kilometers a day. Each camp was a self contained city with all amenities of life. The only consideration of this move was the Emperor’s pleasure.
Calcutta to Simla
During British rule introduced the practice of moving capital to the hills for the summer period. Thus we have the concept of summer and winter capitals from the history. Initially, India’s winter capital used to be in Calcutta and the summer capital at Simla. This was also the pattern in the provinces, each having its winter and summer capitals. Bombay Presidency did better. It had a winter capital at Bombay, summer capital at Mahabaleshwar and monsoon capital at Poona. It is interesting to know that when the practice of shifting to summer capitals started, the then Secretary of State for India questioned the necessity for it because of the heavy economical expenditure involved in these moves. The British found the summer heat of the plains much too oppressive.
The Viceroy justified the expenditure involved in the annual move from Calcutta to Simla on two counts.
First, the output at Simla was almost double than in Calcutta’s sweltering summer. Second, Calcutta was at one end of the Empire and far remote from the North West Frontier which required close supervision for strategic reasons.
Apart from dealing with turbulent tribesmen, the requirements of the great game of that time, to counter Czarist expansion had to be kept in mind. The necessity for move to summer capital was accepted by the British Government. However, during the Second World War this practice was suspended as a measure of economy and after Independence of India it was abandoned.
Kashmir to Jammu
In Jammu Kashmir, the practice of move to Srinagar was introduced by Maharaja Ranbir Singh in 1872. At that time this could have been a need to meet people’s aspirations and also to escape from harsh weather conditions.
However, in present era this is a total waste of money when we have so many alternatives available and also have so many issues to think about and deal with where this money could prove to be a great asset.
In January 1987, the then Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi visited Jammu Kashmir. He was accompanied by Dr Farooq Abdullah. Heavy snow fall had put the normal life out of gear in Kashmir besides disrupting all modes of traffic. Rajiv Gandhi got stranded in Kashmir. He asked Farooq Abdullah to take a fresh review of this age old practice.
To initiate the process on this issue the Government constituted a committee headed by Shiekh Ghulam Rasool the then (Finance Commissioner) as its chairman and two experienced bureaucrats Mohammad Shafi Pandit and Shushma Choudhdry as its members.
A sound report was accordingly submitted to the Government by the committee known as “Darbarmove The Reality” keeping in view all pros and cons of system. While considering the recommendations of the committee, the Government in first phase bifurcated some state level offices which are functioning smoothly at their respective divisions to the entire satisfaction of their employees in general and common people in particular.
Unfortunately, before taking next step some vested interest persons/groups gave it a shape of agitation in Jammu region. No action was taken further. However, the following personal suggestion by Ex Chairman PSC M S Pandit believes that Move can be rationalised, if abandoning was a problem.
Recently, in this background, Omar Abdullah has rightly studied this issue and expressed his personal opinion. He said, “There should be reverse Darbar move so that the Government is with the people when they are facing hardships.”
Now when the whole world has turned into a global village this anachronistic practice of Darbar Move needs to be reviewed keeping in view the aspirations of the general public of both the regions.
Advanced Acceptable Available Alternative
With every passing year the number of employees and the cost of Darbar Move is increasing and it is becoming difficult to feed this invisible elephant. We must do something about this practice or a day will come when this giant elephant will swallow a considerable part of the economy of Jammu Kashmir.
There are around forty-four offices/departments which move in full and around forty eight which move in camp and there is no need and justification for many offices among these to be a part of Darbar Move.
One of the solutions could be to use the available infrastructure on need basis in both the regions without moving the employees. Most of the offices including the secretariat have two buildings with a good number of staff available. The work can be divided among them wherever possible till the time fulltime staff is recruited.
As far as meeting the shortage and availability of staff is concerned, which shall be created if Darbar Move is discontinued, the governments itself agrees that there are number of posts lying in various departments which need to be filled, and if filled, this can solve the problem of shortage of the staff at both the capitals to a great extent.
HODs and other staff members can be called as and when required or some days in a month can be fixed for meetings on important issues which will not create any additional burden on the state exchequer. As far as ministers, legislatures and senior bureaucrats are concerned, they are otherwise touring different areas of the state for different purposes which they can continue.
So instead of people moving to secretariat for getting their work done, it would be secretariat moving close to people for solving their problems. In fact this will also create opportunities of promotions for many when two proper functional offices with full staff strength are created as there is a huge stagnation in various departments. And here again we don’t have to pay anything extra as most of the senior employees have reached the higher side of their salary pay bands, thus awaiting only a change in designations.
Ceremonial move can be continued to satisfy the emotions of both the regions, if required.
Otherwise, this step of creating two full time Civil Secretariats should in future lead to opening of full-fledged mini-secretariats and hill development councils (wherever needed) at district levels so that the problems of the people can be solved at the lowest level itself, especially concerning normal matters.
If the government takes some serious initiatives, to simplify the governance to suit it to the present times a lot can be done and achieved. The only thing needed is the will to do it. Will the government do it is a very big question, because then they will have to rise above the politics which again is a very big issue.
Author is an Assistant Director of State Gazetteers Department and can be mailed at drsirfarazahmed@gmail.com
