Amid mounting anger, gloom, security restrictions and a call by resistance leadership for a protest march the state government will start functioning on Monday from the civil secretariat here as part of a 146 year old Dogra era tradition.
The secretariat, seat of the state government which houses the offices of Chief Minister, other ministers and top bureaucrats, would continue operating from here until it moves back to winter capital Jammu in the first week of November.
The civil secretariat and other Darbar Move offices are opening here at a time when Kashmir is seething in anger over unabated killings of civilians and militants in Kashmir valley in recent months, particularly in Srinagar and Shopian over the weekend.
The Joint Resistance Leadership, a conglomerate of Kashmir’s three top separatist leaders, has called for a march, ‘civil secretariat chalo’ for Monday to protest against the killings.
The estates department has made all arrangements for opening of the bi-annual Durbar move.
“All the records and documents have already been transported there,” said Tassaduq Jeelani, Director Estates.
The practice of Durbar move was started by Dogra ruler Ranbir Singh in 1872.
An official in the General Administration Department told Greater Kashmir that 53 offices moved “in full” to Srinagar while another 53 moved “in camp”.
The practice of Durbar move has been criticised by many in the past.
In April 2012, the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the wisdom of Durbar Move, saying: “It is wastage of money and an escapist move.”
“Do I think the ‘Durbar move’ (shifting of capital) is a waste of money? Yes I do. Is there an alternative? I haven’t seen a viable alternative suggested,” Omar had said on twitter then.
Omar’s father and former chief minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah faced stiff resistance from Jammu lawyers when he tried to abandon the practice during the decade of 1980s.
He gave up the idea.