J&K doles out Rs. 26 Cr to Darbar Move employees without moving!
R.S. Gill
Jammu Tawi, April 29: The Jammu and Kashmir Government today doled out an amount of over Rs. 26 Crores as Special TA to its approximately 10,500 Move Employees and Officers at a uniform rate of Rs. 25,000 each without them actually moving from their place. This Summer instalment, a ‘Nazrana' (Tribute) of Rs. 25000 to each move employee as a special TA stands credited to the individual employee's account well before the three-day Lockdown was to set in today evening irrespective of whether they actually moved to Srinagar or remained at Jammu.
According to a Government order 372-JK (GAD) of 2021 dated 26.04.2021 the government order says,' …it is hereby ordered that Special Move TA at a uniform rate of Rs. 25000 shall be payable to all move employees who move to Srinagar or work from Jammu for Summer Session-2021. This shall be a special dispensation in view of Covid-19 situation.' This special TA will be paid to all move employees and officers despite the fact that Government has already deferred the Bi-annual Darbar Move vide Govt. orders No.365-JK(GAD) of 2021 dated 25.04.2021 and No.378-JK(GAD) of 2021 dated 26.04.2021.
Temporary Moving Allowance (TMA) is yet another bounty in the name of Darbar Move as all move employees and officers get Rs. 3000 per month for the whole year whether stationed at Jammu or Srinagar.
A similar Govt. order 759-JK (GAD) of 2020 dated 11.08.2020 was issued after the deferment of Darbar Move last year too that said, ‘ …It is hereby ordered that Special Move TA shall be paid to all move employees for the Summer-Session-2020 irrespective of their movement. The order further said that ‘The above arrangement shall be the one-time exception, in view of prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and shall not be quoted as a precedent for any case, in future.'
Both of these orders are attributed to the Lieutenant Governor that sans any logic or rationale. Is it not reckless wasteful spending well beyond means of UT like Jammu & Kashmir, which could hardly generate about 12-13 per cent of its total annual budget and remains largely dependent on Central funds?
This Special TA is a bi-annual feature and has been paid to move employees twice every year for decades now– once in May when Darbar moves to Srinagar and then again in October-November when the Darbar moves to Jammu from Srinagar.
The riddles, puzzles and intricacies of the cobwebs called Bi-annual Darbar Moves in J&K is no less than a Herculean task to understand and reserved to be debated on some other day. The report is being confined to Special Traveling Allowance and Temporary Moving Allowance (TMA) paid to all move employees without actually travelling or moving that seems a brazen loot of public exchequer by the trustees of Tax-payers money and breach of public trust.
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, while discussing the whole gamut of this Darbar Move in a very elaborate manner, observed in para 269 of its orders passed on 05.05.2020 and tabulated the compilation of financial burden of Darbar Move in J&K to Rs 198.58 Crores for the year during 2019.
Under the Heading Spl TA and TMA during 2019, the cost worked out by the High Court was Rs. 36.66 Crores and Rs. 23.77 Crores respectively. Though there was an error in its compilation as the Temporary Moving Allowance that was calculated @ Rs. 2000 per month was already enhanced by the government to Rs. 3000 per month thus one can safely add Rs. 11.88 Crore more to the compiled TMA amount.
It was hoped when the state turned into Union Territory that such gross mismanagement and financial extravagance would be done away with but it acted otherwise and added more feathers to its cap by becoming profligate in disbursing the travelling allowances to move employees on the roll in the civil secretariat and at 157 other offices located outside without any travelling actually being undertaken by them.
Most J&K government servants believe that it is the duty of the State to take care of them, that their status as government staff automatically entitles them to shirk and strike work with all privileges, perks and pelf. The J&K Government very graciously oblige them by burning a hole in the taxpayers' pockets. Now, a question arises as to how could the ‘COVID situation' and the ‘one-time exception' relate to the plight of well-paid and well-off government employees for justifying these Bi-annual ‘Toll or Dole' as an act of misplaced philanthropy by a responsible government? And if at all Covid's adverse effect is impacting government employees, does it hit only the move employees and not others? Why such a hand picking approach is followed by the government for the ones who already have an assured income and other perks while the ones like other employees, contractual and need-based workers, daily wagers, private employees, labour etc. do not fall in the ambit of the J&K Government's generosity?
