Amidst tight security arrangements, the offices observing five days week closed here on Friday as the J&K civil secretariat, the highest seat of the government, moved to Kashmir. The offices observing 6 days week would close on Saturday.
The practice of ‘Durbar Move’ was started by the then Maharajaof the State, Gulab Singh in 1872 to escape the scorching heat during summersin Jammu and biting cold of winters in Srinagar. The practice has beencontinuing since then, but this year, in order to provide governance benefitsto the people of Jammu in summers, the General Administration Department hasestablished a summer secretariat here.
As per an order, the summer secretariat shall operate fromsecond floor of civil secretariat, Jammu and will be headed by Rohit Khajuria,Special Secretary to the government.
“The new meeting hall of the third floor, civil secretariat,Jammu shall also be kept operational along with internet and VC facility formeetings to be conveyed by the Advisors, Chief Secretary and the AdministrativeSecretaries,” the order said.
The summer secretariat shall start functioning here fromApril 29 after the closure of offices at Jammu. The order said that one officerof level of Special Secretary, one each of Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary,two senior scale stenographer/junior scale stenographer, three seniorassistants/junior assistants and three orderlies, shall work at the summersecretariat.
The officers who have been posted in the summer secretariatother than Rohit Khajuria, Special Secretary to the government, Revenue Departmentare Preeti Sharma, Deputy Secretary to government, Technical EducationDepartment; Rita Koul, Under Secretary to the government, Power DevelopmentDepartment; Harvinder Singh, Private Secretary, Hospitality and Protocoldepartment; Ghulam Qadir, Section Officer, department of Food, Civil Suppliesand Consumer Affairs and others. The move offices would reopen in Srinagar on 6May, 2019.