Fire and Emergency Services

PDP-led coalition Government made many promises of doing away with old prejudices and meting out uniform treatment to all the three regions of the State. Certainly, somewhere at the bottom of subconscious mind, there lay the guilt of discrimination done to one or the other region that needed to be rectified. Realization of a fault is in itself a sign of not repeating it and also of repairing it as soon as possible. People in Jammu and Ladakh regions naturally expected fair deal from the Coalition Government as per its repeated assurances. Expectations of Jammu region received fillip, acc after Jammu returned the highest number of legislators known so far and these are now the part of the Coalition Government. A general impression with the voters in Jammu has been that since the number of its elected representatives has been very small, there is little opposition to such of the decisions of the Government as indicate symptoms of discrimination.
It is true Jammu has been protesting against discrimination from time to time and has also been raising issues, which according to them, could be cited as instances to substantiate their grievances. The Government seldom reacted to the protests except making a generalization that given the structure, there is no scope for discriminating one against the other. This rhetoric never satisfied the Jammu region and it went on protesting and raising the issue in one way or the other. The Government never agreed to constitute a commission of inquiry into the allegations of discrimination, which further aggravated the situation.
In this background a fresh instance has come to light which is projected as an act of discrimination. It pertains to the Fire and Emergency Services. This service has established stations in both the regions. What is the criterion for having a particular number of its stations in the two regions is not clear. Is it population density or inhabited area or frequency of fire accidents and fatalities? We are not informed on this aspect. In recent requisition made by the Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services, new 59 Fire Stations have been recommended for Kashmir region and against it only 30 Stations are recommended for Jammu region.  Since the criterion for fixation of these numbers is not known, comparative statistics available to us show that the distribution lacks rationale. In the first place, it should be said that the importance of Jammu having a separate Directorate of Fire and Emergency Services was mooted way back in 2008 when the PDP-Congress coalition was in place and Azad happened to be the Chief Minister. The idea never matured. Out of 173 Fire & Emergency Stations spread all over the State at present only 40 of them are located in Jammu division despite more number of fire incidents here. Accordingly, less than one fourth of the total budget of the Department is spent in Jammu while the number of Jammu based employees in Fire & Emergency Services is only 700 out of 3583.  Again as per statistical data of Fire & Emergency Services in J&K for the year 2014, the highest number of fire incidents was registered in Jammu district where property worth lakhs of rupees was gutted and eight persons lost their lives during one year.
Though the number of total complaints of fire and emergency nature in entire Kashmir valley was slightly higher than Jammu division, the loss of life in these mishaps was much higher in this region. There were total 172 casualties in the State last year and 126 of them took place in Jammu division only as is obtainable from official data.
The facts speak for themselves. If this is not discrimination, what other name should be given to it? The fact of the matter is that the syndrome of discrimination has gone deep into the bureaucratic culture of our State administration. It blurs the vision and reality is obliterated. The need is that the work culture of the bureaucrats and mandarins in the State administration need to come out of their old mindset and open eye to new realities. Jammu region has made many sacrifices and borne many deprivations with patience and fortitude. The administrative machinery should forget that people of Jammu region can be taken for a ride. Acts of discrimination, minor or major, cannot remain hidden from searching eyes. The Government would do well to stick to its thinking of removing even the smallest trace of discrimination so that its popularity with the people is not berated.

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