Darbar move begins in Jammu and Kashmir

Srinagar: The pre-Independence practice of ‘Darbar Move’, the annual shifting of Jammu and Kashmir’s Civil Secretariat from Jammu to Srinagar, today began with valley based employees and advance parties arriving here.
The Civil Secretariat closed in Jammu on April 29 and will reopen here on May 9. It will close here in late October and reopen in Jammu in the first week of November.
However, the practice started by Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1872 to take escape extreme weather conditions in Jammu and Srinagar, is proving costly for the state exchequer as it has to spend crores of rupees twice a year to shift the massive workforce and voluminous records between the twin capitals of the state.