‘Darbar’ move binds Jammu with the Valley

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in the country which has separate capitals for winter and summer. With the change in season, “Darbar”, the government offices of various departments, along with nearly one million employees and their families and records is shifted bi-annually between the twin capitals.

Jammu, scarping the low-lying foothills of the Himalayas, turns into the seat of government when Srinagar is snowbound and freezing.  Thousands of the Valley’s families which are not part of the official “Darbar” move also shift to Jammu for winter to escape the biting cold and hardships the harsh winter brings with it for the local population.  

The trend of shifting state secretariat from one state capital to another has been going on since 1872, the era of Gulab Singh, the founder and first Dogra Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir during the British Raj in India. He apparently had a weakness for Jammu, the home of the Dogras; hence made it the winter capital. The 146-year-old practice of “Darbar” move brings the government back to Srinagar for summer months in May.

Many of the moving employees and their families begin to steel themselves weeks before the departure and on their arrival in Jammu feel cozy for the shifting takes them away from the harsh winter that makes life dreary and expensive back home. Also in the aftermath of Kashmiri separatist campaign bursting into a major violence in 1989-90, the people coming from another milieu found life very contended and secure at Jammu for the place being comparatively peaceful.

By May, Jammu changes from hot to hotter and then into ‘hell’ due to constant high temperatures. It is when everyone wishes to return to the cool environs of Srinagar.

This year the Civil Secretariat along with other “Darbar” move offices closed in Srinagar on October 26 and will reopen in Jammu on November 5 as part of bi-annual shift.

As has been the practice, the official records were packed in boxes after working hours on last working day in Srinagar and then put in lorries provided by the state road transport corporation  to be sent to Jammu.

However, the offices moving in camp were allowed to carry only 33 per cent of the strength of staff in that particular office or with 10 officials whichever was less. All departments were asked to send their advance parties to Jammu on October 22 consisting of one gazetted officer and four to five non-gazetted employees to receive the records in the winter capital. The keys of the boxes ought to reach the advance parties well in time. A security official of SSP’s rank at the civil secretariat oversees the process and reports to general administration department if any lapses do take place.

The J&KSRTC also makes available sufficient number of buses for transportation of employees and their families. This year, the loaded trucks will leave for Jammu on October 28 in a convoy. The police escorts the employees as well as records convoys all along the 294-km Srinagar-Jammu highway and up to their respective destinations. Á majority of employees are allotted accommodation against nominal rent through the estates department in the city where they do not own or posses their own houses. Also, moving employees can retain the government accommodation allotted to them at Srinagar or Jammu for bona-fide use of their families under intimation to the estates department on applicable terms.

As the “Darbar” shifts to Jammu, the  moving employees having ration cards at Srinagar  have to surrender them to the concerned department in the summer capital and obtain a surrender certificate for getting a new one in Jammu.

Many people in Kashmir Valley, however, criticise the practice of “Darbar” move for various reasons including devouring millions of rupees from the state exchequer every year.