“We conform to no rules”

Vijay Gupta
During an interlude of less than one year, between 1985 (when G.M. Shah, son- in- law of late Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah, staged a coup against his brother- in -law, Dr. Farooq  Abdullah, and 1987, when Farooq Abdullah was re elected as CM of this state), Jagmohan the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir constituted in1986 Sri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board.  This singular action of Jagmohan, a rank outsider, was set to change the economic spectrum of Jammu Province.  Jammu City hitherto a non-descript sleepy town known only as a last station for Srinagar bound tourists began to stir.  Within a couple of years Jagmohan’s ingenuity and vision had placed Jammu/Katra among the top ten religious based tourist destinations in India. While the spectacular increase in the influx of tourists (Yatris) was a welcome surprise, the matching infrastructure to accommodate/facilitate the Yatris was woefully nonexistent.  As the planning has never been our (read Government) forte private enterprise tried to fill in the gap.  Archaic Municipal Laws, however, came in the way.  Instead mending laws to calibrate with the requirements of the time, at that stage, a political – bureaucratic nexus evolved and perceived the status quo as a huge opportunity to reap moolah.  For this unholy nexus the status quo facilitated organized loot and plunder (a Dr. Manmohan Singh quote) and unabated encroachment.  In next three decades or so Jammu City and Katra town expanded like a creeper on the unplastered walls of an abandoned building. I am reproducing a conversation that took place in the Chamber of Chairman State Tribunal.  Chairman : ”in our Kolkata the building bye laws are up-to-date and simple.  People do not feel the need to violate these and conform to rules’. Somebody in the Chamber”: Why don’t you being a very senior IAS Officer prepare a note suggesting amendments in the existing laws on the pattern of  building bye laws in Kolkata”. Prompt came the reply from Chairman” No. No. No. Why should I? I am earning lakhs of rupees for the Government by compounding these violations”.
Thus a pattern had been set and Jammu began to grow as a society totally inimical to the very idea of ‘conforming to rules’. And thus started a cult.  Icons and progenitors of this cult, of course, have been our VIPs, VIP wannabes and Marauding Matador drivers. Over the years many more sections of our society have joined this cult.  Without claiming to be comprehensive I have drawn an Honors’ List.
Top most position in my ‘honors’ list is jointly held by Commissioners of Sales Tax and Excise (both housed in the same building in Railway Head Complex Bahu Plaza.  Although they have a basement for parking their vehicles but in an act of defiance the vehicles of these Officers are parked in front of the entrance to their office building right by the side of a billboard which reads “No Parking”.  No wonder many assessee, visitors and advocates dutifully follow these icons.
While the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir tends to come heavily on hotels, shopping malls and banquet halls for not providing parking space and rightly too, the Government Offices/Institutions with immense Public dealing have been spared for no reason.  Telephone Exchange and Consumer Service Centre building of BSNL and adjacent building of Head Post Office on a busy Apsara Road carry the attitude – ‘We conform to No Rules’ brazenly.  BSNL office adjacent to Regional Office of RBI on Railway Road presents a pathetic scene.  Left with no alternative a large number of BSNL subscribers are forced to park their vehicles in front of the building or across the road.  This, however, provides an ideal trap for the Mini- pick-up- crane of Traffic Police.  Unable to touch SUVs and vehicles bearing stickers of Most Privileged Persons like Lawyers and the Members of the Press Corps, small vehicles normally driven by Senior citizens and women are towed away. Any working day one can find some members of this beleaguered community scurrying for their poached vehicle.
The cult of ‘We conform to No Rules’, however, draws maximum strength from a bludgeoning section of young and not so young who have taken to Jammu roads as a medium of expression of their youthful aggression.  Throwing all caution (rules) to wind this section jostles you from left and right, rams you from behind and also wishes you away from its path by coming over from front  in full speed ‘all horns blazing’.  While Traffic Signals have no meaning, for them, the ‘lane driving’ is ‘vain driving’.
Another highly regarded section of our society, the Engineers’ community, I suspect, unbeknown to them too has joined this cult.  This community impacts our life 24×7 all the 52 weeks of the year.  Trained to design and also ensure that work on their design conforms to specifications by effective supervision, this engineers community has been carried away by the drift of this cult.  Supervision part of the engineering expertise has conveniently been done away with.  Instead of a straight and symmetrical line the electrical poles present the sight of a disarrayed bouquet.  Black topping of roads, usually done in small stretches, in a pick and choose manner, remains incomplete for years together.  Roads with perennially bleeding pipes underneath are black topped without a second thought.  All this and more in spite of the fact that with a view to facilitating their (Engineers) ‘creative huddle’ there are two Engineers’ Institutes one each at prime locations in Gandhi Nagar and Chhanni Himmat.  The creative huddles, however, have not been vain.  These creative huddles have designed for you ’57 varieties’ of speed breakers which have been strategically placed to surprise you.
Paradoxically we take this all in our stride because we in Jammu are angling for coveted ‘Most Tolerant’ society tag.
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