With increase in population, ease of mobility and increased economic and social activity in the State, there has been great rush and crowding in the Secretariat where people come to get their pending issues resolved. The philosophy of empowering people and providing them a handful of privileges have also resulted in the realization that de-crowding has to be brought about. The experiment was made by opening three Mini Secretariats in South Kashmir. The three district headquarters namely Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian were selected where Mini Secretariats would be built. The Mini Secretariat complexes were raised with an aim to have all the important offices under one roof. The project costs were Rs 4 crore, Rs 29.47 crore and Rs 36.86 crore respectively.
All this sounded excellent because it would save the people the exercise of coming all the way to Srinagar and then running from pillar to post to get their problems resolved. It was also clarified as to which departments would be shifted in part to these Mini Secretariats. The taste of pudding is in eating goes the old saying. What do we have now after investing this entire big amount in these Mini Secretariats? The Government has failed to move the key departments to these complexes which rendered them ineffective. Three Mini-Secretariats in South Kashmir housed only a few departments like education, cooperatives, revenue etc… Out of the 36 district offices, only 12 have been shifted to the Mini-Secretariat of Kulgam. Shopian Mini-Secretariat was supposed to house over four dozen departments.
Construction of these structures has taken a long time. The Pulwama Mini Secretariat took four year to complete. Then a good deal of money has been spent on this enterprise. But most of the offices continue to function from their old accommodations and have not been shifted. Does it not mean that the scheme has failed after wasting so much of money and time? If the Government now feels that there is no need of shifting the offices from old buildings to the new ones, then there was no need to waste so much of money. People in the locality and concerned districts are at a loss to understand why the offices are not shifted. May be there are vested interests. Those who receive the rent money would not be willing that they should be deprived of their income. That is reason whatsoever and the writ of the authorities in power should prevail.
Follow our WhatsApp channel