Working of Sectt, deptts, HC gets hampered for nearly 2 months
*Practice also leads to delay in disposal of official files
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 19: Though the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is largely dependent on the Union Government to meet its annual expenditure yet it is spending whopping amount of over Rs 130 crore every year for Darbar Move from Jammu to Srinagar and vice-versa.
Moreover, this practice going on during the past several decades also hampers working of Civil Secretariat, Government departments, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), Corporations, Boards and High Court main wing for almost two months every year and leads to delay in disposal of official files/cases.
The revelation about whopping expenditure albeit ‘unfruitful’ has been made before the Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajnesh Oswal by the Financial Commissioner, Finance Department of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir through a detailed report, the copy of which is available with EXCELSIOR.
The report has been submitted in compliance to the direction dated April 10, 2020 whereby Division Bench had asked the Financial Commissioner Finance Department to provide in a tabulation setting out move-wise categories/heads, figures of the finances incurred on the Darbar Move and details of the financial benefits (Move Allowance, Temporary Move Allowance and any other) admissible to the employees.
As per the figures, a total of 10112 gazetted, non-gazetted and Class-IV employees of Civil Secretariat, Head of Departments, Organizations/Boards/Corporations, Judiciary and Legislature were moved from Jammu to Srinagar in April 2019 and an expenditure of Rs 1636 lakh was incurred on providing Moving TA, loading/unloading and carriage etc at that time. In addition, an expenditure of Rs 1212 lakh was incurred on account of Temporary Move Allowance at the rate of Rs 2000 per employee for six months. In this way, a total of Rs 2849 lakh (Rs 28.49 crore) expenditure was incurred.
Similarly, a total of 9695 employees were moved from Srinagar to Jammu in October 2019 and an expenditure of Rs 2536 lakh was incurred on providing Moving TA, loading/unloading and carriage etc. In addition, an expenditure of Rs 1163 lakh was incurred on account of Temporary Move Allowance at the rate of Rs 2000 per employee for six months. As such a total of Rs 3699 lakh (Rs 36.99 crore) expenditure was incurred.
This means, a total of Rs 65.48 crore were expended on Darbar Move from Jammu to Srinagar and vice-versa in the year 2019.
Besides this, Estates Department spent an amount of Rs 4161 lakh in hiring facilities for making available accommodation to the Darbar Move employees from May 2019 to October 2019 in Srinagar and Rs 2053 lakh from November 2019 to April 2020 in Jammu. This means a total of Rs 6214 lakh (Rs 62.14 crore) were spent in hiring hotels, JKTDC accommodation, private houses, transport, maintenance charges and hiring of seasonal labourers for Darbar Move from Jammu to Srinagar and vice-versa.
About the move of main wing of the High Court, the Registrar General in his report submitted to the Division Bench has revealed that Darbar Move has huge impact on the administrative functioning of the High Court as the whole administrative record is required to be packed, transported and then un-packed.
“The packing of the record takes at least one week, transportation of the record takes another week and one week for un-packing and settling the record. Thus, at least for three weeks administrative work on one Darbar Move gets hampered”, the Registrar General has mentioned in the report. This means in a calendar year, Darbar Move twice-first in the last week of April from Jammu to Srinagar and then the second time in the last week of October from Srinagar to Jammu leads to hampering of administrative work for almost two months.
As per the report, move officials salary bill for one week approximately comes at Rs 2150000 and for six weeks comes at Rs 1,29,00000. An amount of Rs 2,60,689 was spent as transport charges from Srinagar to Jammu in October/November 2019 and Jammu to Srinagar in April/May 2019. Similarly, an amount of Rs 1,54,090 was spent in October/November 2019 and Rs 1,68,336 in April/May 2019 as miscellaneous charges.
As far as movement of officers and officials of the High Court connected with Darbar Move and extra allowance paid thereof is concerned, the report reveals expenditure of Rs 68 lakh during 2019. Moreover, official vehicles of Chief Justice, first Puisne Judge and other officials also move from Jammu to Srinagar and vice-versa as such huge money is also spent as fuel expenses besides the wear tear.
The perusal of the reports furnished by the Financial Commissioner Finance, Estates Department and Registrar General have clearly revealed that working of Civil, Secretariat, Government departments, PSUs, Boards and High Court main wing remains affected for nearly two months in a year and leads to piling up of the official files/cases.
“One can easily imagine how many official files can be disposed of within two months, which others get wasted during the Darbar Move every year”, sources remarked.
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