SRINAGAR: Files dusted, paper clips packed into metal boxes and photocopying machines loaded onto 200 trucks lining a heavily-guarded road outside the civil secretariat in Srinagar.
Government officials in the state of Jammu and Kashmir are on the move to Jammu city in an annual ritual to escape the chilly winter of the Himalayan valley.
Under an old tradition called Darbar, meaning council of ministers, about 4,500 officials staffing the main civil secretariat every year move lock, stock and barrel to and from Srinagar, the state’s summer capital.
In April, they move back to the Summer capital, Srinagar.
The Darbar has been a tradition since the 1920s, when the region was ruled by the Dogra Maharaja, shifted offices in view of the weather.
That tradition has stayed alive despite the cost of moving (over 60 crores), which increases at least 10 percent each year, and a over two-decade-old separatist rebellion in which tens of thousands have been killed.
For Jammu residents, the arrival marks the start of a lively period of brimming markets and hustle and bustle.
Administrators live in highly guarded apartments and hotels and are taken every day to their quarters in a convoy of vehicles backed by a security escort.
Their families shift along with them, mostly.
But in Srinagar, the Darbar move marks a phase of dull life, scarce electricity and lesser traffic jams.
The civil secretariat shuts down completely for six months as telephone lines are disconnected and cupboards and tables lie bare in the darkness, surrounded by silent corridors.
Security guards moving in and around the building are the only signs of life.
