Ministers move ahead of ‘Darbar

Eight days before the shifting of Darbar to Jammu, most of the PDP-BJP ministers and senior officials have left the Civil Secretariat here.
The Civil Secretariat in Srinagar will close officially on October 27, to reopen in winter capital Jammu on November 6.
However, only a few ministers can be seen at the Civil Secretariat here these days, while the chambers of most others have been locked already.
“The BJP ministers have already shifted to Jammu,” an official at the Civil Secretariat Srinagar, said. “Most departments have packed official records in boxes and bags,” he added.On Wednesday, when this reporter visited the Civil Secretariat Srinagar, several departments had packed the official records. The boxes and bags were lying in corridors of the secretariat building.An official said that Forest Minister Lal Singh did not visit the Civil Secretariat for the last 10 days.When asked how the department functions in absence of the minister, he replied, “The minister may be convening meeting in Jammu and officials will be going there.”He said there are dozens of files pending but will be cleared only after ministers will be here.
The office chambers of other PDP-BJP ministers Nirmal Singh, Sham Lal Chowdhary, Chandra Prakash, Sunil Sharmar, Ghulam Nabi Lone, Bali Bhagat, Chowdhary Zulfikar Ali, Priya Sethi, Ajay Nanda, Sajad Lone, Asiya Naqsh were locked.“Sahab is in Jammu. We don’t know when he will return,” an official outside the official chamber of Bali Bhagat, said.The official chambers of Commissioner Secretary Health and Medical Education, Commissioner Finance, Principle Secretary Home, Power Secretary, Commissioner Secretary Industries and Commerce, and Commissioner Transport, besides several other senior officials were too locked on Wednesday.The non-availability of ministers is taking a toll on people, who visit the Civil Secretariat to get their issues addressed.“We visited the Civil Secretariat three times for the last 10 days but the minister is not available,” Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Baramulla, said.He was waiting along with a group of people outside the Health Minister’s chamber at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.
“The officials said the minister is in Jammu and we have to again return home without meeting the minister,” he said.A delegation from Budgam had to return home from the Civil Secretariat after the ministers, they wanted to meet were not available.“We visited several times for the last one week for redressal of sanitation problem, shortage of drinking water. Every time we have to return home as the concerned ministers are not available here,” they said. “We were in a queue outside the secretariat for four hours and were allowed to go inside after 2pm,” they said.