Abid Bashir
Srinagar (NVI): Amid the Covid-19 lockdown, Civil Secretariat re-opened in Srinagar after a gap of six months today, though partially. Tight security arrangements were in place for the re-opening of the Civil Secretariat building.
Employees walked through de-contamination tunnels installed by the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on the premises of Secretariat, the highest seat of governance in J&K.
“We installed four sanitisation tunnels in the secretariat and all employees walked through before entering their respective offices,” SMC Mayor, Junaid Azim Mattoo told NVI.
All the employees were also screened for body temperatures by thermal devices, installed by the Health Department in a bid to detect Covid suspects.
Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu also arrived at the secretariat here, even as Darbar Move would formally fully re-open in the summer capital next month on June 15.
The Civil Secretariat is functioning from here today with the staff and officers based in Srinagar and the rest of Kashmir districts. The decision was taken by the government to ensure less crowd at the civil secretariat in the wake of the pandemic that has affected over 700 people in J&K and claimed eight lives so far.
For over a century, the Civil Secretariat has been functioning from Jammu in winter months and in summers from Srinagar. The practice is known as Darbar Move in J&K as it was started by Maharaja Ghulab Singh and then continued by his son Maharaja Hari Singh, who ruled J&K till 1947.
