MUHAMMAD MUKARAM
SRINAGAR: In a bizarre bureaucratic move, District Administration Baramulla to get into good books of Chief Minister only let those delegations meet Mehbooba Mufti who would praise the working of district administration. Those with genuine grievances for which CM had begun public Darbars in several districts across Jammu and Kashmir, were not let in the meeting, thus killing the whole purpose.
For last two months, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is holding public Darbars in several districts on every Sunday to reach out to public grievances face to face across Jammu and Kashmir but the top officials are misleading the Chief Minister during such Darbars.
This newspaper has taken the lid off the brazen intentions of some officials to gain political mileage by keeping Chief Minister in good mood while public continuously suffer due to malfunctioning at local governance level.
Talking to STATE TIMES several people complained against various government departments finding no place in Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s two-day public Darbar, which concluded on Monday at Baramulla.
To put a rosy picture of the district, Baramulla Deputy Commissioner Nasir Naqash’s office didn’t allow most of the delegations with complaints against his office or departments like Roads and Building (R&B), and Public Health Engineering (PHE) to meet Mehbooba.
Two days ahead of the CM’s visit, the deputy commissioner under Special Area Development Programme even released Rs 10 lakh for books and Rs 5 lakh for repair of a school in Old Town Baramulla, a move described by the officials to silence the complaining voices in the town.
“It was a fixed match played by the DC and his Chief Planning Officer (CPO) along with the executive engineers of the PHE and R&B departments to avoid the wrath of the CM in the public Darbar,” said an aggrieved local Nowshad Ahmad of Sopore.
Mehbooba visited Baramulla on Sunday to convene a public grievances redressal camp where she met nearly 40 delegations from different parts of the district.
However, official sources said only those delegations, who promised not to complain against any department, were allowed to meet the CM and place their demands before her.
The district administration didn’t allow nearly a dozen delegations from Zaingiri, Wagoora, Sopore, Pattan, and Uri.
The complainants say the CPO, Abdul Gani Malik, who is posted in the DC office for past twenty years, has been the main person in creating hurdles in the meeting of complainants with the CM.
“The CPO and executive engineers of the R&B and PHE categorically refused to provide us appointment after they saw complaints against their departments,” said a complainant from Sangrama constituency.
“The R&B and PHE officials, who had assembled in the DC office for gate-keeping of the complaints, had even “lied to us” that funds have been released for the works pending for several years in their areas”, locals alleged.
