*Deadline fixed by FM expires without tangible result
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 19: Maintaining repository of record/ documents of vital importance has remained least priority for the bureaucrats in Jammu and Kashmir despite the fact that such an activity is an ethical obligation on their part so that future generations would have easy access to the decisions taken by the successive Governments in the State from time to time.
This can be gauged from the fate of numerous instructions on the subject issued by the successive Governments during the past 12 years and the dismaying fact that in Jammu and Kashmir no Government documents particularly the Cabinet decisions have been archived during the past 31 years.
Vide Circular No.07-GAD of 2004 dated May 11, 2004, the then State Government had directed all the departments to identify and prepare a check list of records likely to be transferred to Archives Repositories at Jammu/Srinagar for retention/preservation. It was also instructed through this circular that copies of all Government orders issued by various departments shall invariably be endorsed to Director Archives, Archaeology and Museums for record.
However, there was negligible compliance of this circular as a result of which Archives Department Repositories both at Jammu and Srinagar remained deprived of vital decisions taken by the successive Governments, official sources told EXCELSIOR, adding “due to this not only researchers were disadvantaged but sometimes the Government agencies failed to timely get the documents for the purpose of planning, inter-disciplinary communication and evaluation of results”, they added.
The issue of archiving of record of vital importance also drew the attention of the present PDP-BJP Coalition Government and accordingly the Minister for Finance, Haseeb Drabu discussed the matter in a meeting convened on April 22, 2016.
In the meeting, it was observed that in Jammu and Kashmir no Government documents have been archived since 1985 and while expressing concern over this grave issue, the Finance Minister directed all the departments to make it a regular affair to forward the documents/records to the Department of Archives so that Repositories at Jammu as well as Srinagar are enriched.
About non-availability of Cabinet decisions taken since 1985 in the Department of Archives, the Finance Minister fixed a deadline of six months for all the departments to archive all Cabinet decisions of last 31 years without any further slackness.
Thereafter, the directions issued in Circular No.7-GAD of 2004 dated May 11, 2004 were reiterated by the Government in the new Circular No.29-GAD of 2016 dated June 14, 2016 and the Administrative Secretaries were explicitly told that there should not be any slackness in ensuring compliance to the directions, sources said.
However, ‘the era of non-compliance’ has not come to an end till date and endorsing copies of Government orders/instructions to Director, Archives, Archaeology and Museums has remained a distant dream, sources regretted, adding “it has been observed by the General Administration Department that the departments are not following the instructions issued through different circulars during the past 12 years”.
Now, the Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department Khurshid Ahmad has once again impressed upon all the Administrative Secretaries and the Heads of the Departments to endorse all the decisions, Government orders and important instructions to the Director Archives, Archaeology and Museums so that a repository of record/documents is maintained at the divisional headquarters of the Directorate.
“All this clearly indicates that maintaining repository of records/documents of vital importance remains a least priority for the bureaucrats”, sources remarked, adding “in this way they are ignoring ethical obligation on their part of facilitating enrichment of the repositories of the Archives Department for access by the future generations and for policy planning in the coming years”.
Moreover, the deadline of six months fixed by the Finance Minister for all the departments to archive all Cabinet decisions of last 31 years has expired but the departments have no tangible results to show in this regard, sources said, adding “this establishes that even the directions of the sitting Finance Minister have been taken very casually by majority of the departments”.
It is pertinent to mention here that in order to document the State’s history the Government entities are required by law to transfer records to the Archives Department for permanent preservation. All the records except those declared to be confidential are required to be made available for research.
“It is because of non-archiving of Cabinet decisions of last 31 years that successive Governments had faced numerous problems in justifying the stance of the Jammu and Kashmir on issues of immense importance for the State”, sources said, adding “if record of such a huge period could not be archived, the interests of J&K would be jeopardized on many fronts in future”.
When contacted, an officer of the Department of Archives, Archaeology and Museums confirmed that almost all the departments have failed to meet the deadline fixed by the Finance Minister on archiving record of last 31 years. “The concerned bureaucrats will be doing disservice to the State if they fail to accomplish the assigned task without loss of any more time”, he remarked while pleading anonymity.
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