‘Darbar’ opens in Srinagar

Srinagar: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Monday received a guard of honour by smartly dressed contingent of state’s armed force as civil secretariat offices opened in this summer capital for next six months as part of the bi-annual ‘Darbar’ move.
Later the Chief Minister addressed the joint meeting of Council of Ministers and Administrative Secretaries and said that vision envisioned by the political dispensation for all round development of the State has to be realized and implemented by the administration putting in befitting efforts.
Dedicating next six months to ‘work’, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah urged the Council of Ministers and Administrative Secretaries to focus on good delivery of governance, administration and development.
“Attention to the public requirements should be the first response of the Political Dispensation and Civil Administration keeping law and order machinery on back seat”, he said. “The day to day grievances of people on account of electricity, drainage, roads, water supply, etc should be addressed by the concerned departments on priority and promptly without getting these inflated as law and order problems”, he asserted.
“When competence, experience and judgment are put together to address the issues and carry forward the development agenda, there should be no option of any failure on the part of administration,” he said, an official release issued here said.
“Any failure starts with you and ends up with me,” he said stressing on pro-active dealing by the administration to ensure meaningful results of schemes for public good and responding to the public needs.
“I do not shy away from responsibility and admitting mistakes if any. I also do not believe in micro-managing. My over all job is to feed the directions. The Ministers and the Administrative Secretaries are competent enough to deliver effectively and efficiently”, he said adding that the ultimate goal should be to reach out the people and ensure success of development process.
On Panchayat elections, the Chief Minister said that the transfer of functions, functionaries and funds should follow the elections. He directed the Urban Development Secretary to formulate the schedule for the elections to the urban local bodies adding that the current fiscal should be the year of empowering people at lower levels and strengthening the democratic institutions.
Omar Abdullah underlined the need for operationalizing the Public Service Guarantee Act to ensure timeline delivery of important services to the people adding that it would make the administration prompt and help curb red tap and malpractices. He asked for strict adherence to the procedures and rules by the government departments while making decisions regarding the development works. “Temptation of taking easy routes often land us in trouble while tougher routes make the tasks perfect”, he said asking for measures to effectively curb the corrupt practices at all levels.
“People have enormous expectations with the government and they have faith that the delivery of services on all fronts would improve year after year. We have to come up to their expectations and be pro-active and responsive to the public requirements”, he said.
The Chief Minister specifically directed the R&B department for taking measures for early completion of road upgradation and improvement works in Srinagar city. “I know the people in the city face lot of inconvenience for want of good road communication. The last year’s unrest has caused great harm to the development of road sector. I want immediate action this year to set the roads right and redress the grievances of citizens”, he directed.
The trend of shifting State secretariat from one state capital to another has been going on in the state since 1872, the era of Maharaja Gulab Singh and devours crores of rupees from state exchequer every year.