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Civil Secretariat staffers protest against admn’s decision to shift Darbar Move offices to Srinagar
Amid purported moves of the government to shift the seat of power—Civil Secretariat and other Darbar Move offices to Srinagar, Jammu-based employees staged a protest
Amid purported moves of the government to shift the seat of power—Civil Secretariat and other Darbar Move offices to Srinagar, Jammu-based employees staged a protest on the premises of the civil secretariat here on Thursday against the administration’s decision.
Sources in the secretariat said that the Jammu and Kashmir administration was likely to come out with an order to shift Darbar Move offices to Srinagar in the next two days.
Jammu-based employees, who were the first to learn about such a plan of the government, held a demonstration on the premises of the Civil Secretariat against any such decision and demanded to immediately defer the decision till Covid-19 situation improved in the Union territory.
Employees assembled outside the civil secretariat and held a strong protest demonstration.
The Civil Secretariat at Srinagar started partial functioning on May 4 with the staff and officers on ‘as is where is’ basis i.e. those who have already been or likely to get relocated before that date.
The administrative secretaries and heads of departments have been asked to assign work to officers, staff stationed at Srinagar and Jammu accordingly for obtaining maximum efficiency and minimum disruption.
An earlier order had stated that the above issue shall be reviewed on June 15 when a clear picture on the extent and spread of Covid-19 would have been at hand.
“It will be disastrous if authorities shift the Civil Secretariat to Srinagar at this stage of the pandemic when it has started to explode. A senior IAS officer who had gone to Srinagar had returned Covid-19 positive and has put entire top bureaucracy into jeopardy. How the government could even think something so silly,” an employee said.
It may be stated here that on May 5, Jammu and Kashmir high court had asked the Centre and UT administration to look into the veracity of 148-year-old biannual Darbar Move practice that costs more than ₹200 crore to the cash-strapped and economically weak Union territory.
