Account of a top govt officer in J&K govt. How the govt went defunct ? Tragedy of Errors It was painful to watch the inaction of an insensitive bureaucracy in J&K DEFUNCT GOVERNMENT Maharaja Hari Singh was a dictator, an autocrat for whom the people were the subjects, not the masters of their destiny. However, during a flood in late 1920s, when Jhelum breached its banks in the night at Lal Chowk, where today there is Ahdoos Hotel, he rushed to the spot with all his convoy. A British officer on duty shouted at him to leave the spot lest he too is drowned. Hari Singh replied, “If Kashmir is saved let me be drowned. If I live and the Valley is swept, whom shall I rule?” He directed the blockade of the breach and got it plugged. That was 1928. This is 2014. That was autocracy; this is democracy. It was probably 4th September, 2014 that the Chief Secretary, J&K had convened a meeting via videoconference with all the Deputy Commissioners of Kashmir Valley regarding electoral reforms. Suddenly there was a mention of heavy rains all across, but every Deputy Commissioner vowed that they are geared up to meet the challenge. The next day they repeated this assurance to the Chief Minister as well. But when waters rose, it swept not only the huge material assets but the assurances and credibility of these officers as well. Srinagar, the second oldest city of the country after Varanasi, was flooded and its roughly 10 lakh residents inundated, crying for help. There was nobody in government for a day or two. The scale and scope of the tragedy was huge. On the third day, after the city was flooded, I made contacts with some of my colleagues, using the old courier means, but could not do much. A day later we somehow succeeded in managing contacts with an officer friend at Srinagar’s airbase, which had been converted into a relief centre cum headquarters of the state apparatus. As I reached the Arjun lounge ( as the building is popularly called), I saw tens of helicopters and planes taking off and landing, of course with relief material, supplies and media persons from outside. Officers of airforce and army were busy with rescue and relief operations, so were a few senior officers of the state government. The chief minister would come and hold meetings with civil and military brass. At one of the meetings, the chief minister was apprised about a food store in possession of FCI at Lethpora, Pulwama, whose storekeeper was not traceable. The CM directed the concerned DC to break the lock in presence of a magistrate and take out ration for onward distribution. I later learnt that it took the administration three days – three days in flood situation means a lot – to get a magistrate in whose presence the lock was opened. We spent a couple of days at Srinagar airbase, brainstorming. But honestly nobody knew what is to be done. No plan, no direction. Though the Chief Minister tried to dilute the impression that the state machinery was doing nothing by addressing media repeatedly, but there was no support service to him from his own PR Department which seemed to have been literally devastated much before the floods. Anyway, we shifted our base to Hariniwas, on the foothills of Shankracharya hills. We started from two satellite phones given by the army authorities. Here too it was chaos all around. I could find no officer ready with details or logistic plans. Anyhow the chief minister decided we should have two meetings daily to review the situation – a 9am meeting to chalk out strategy and another 7pm meeting to know what we had done in the day. The emotive pun that comes into play at such occasions was missing. At one of the meetings a senior official reports that such and such relief material has been received. The CM looks happy and directs that it should be distributed. This is about the morning meeting. In the evening, the same officer reported that whatever he had reported in the morning was what he called a ‘false alarm’. He had not cr
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 08:46:54 +0000
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