Omar starts work from Jammu office amid Darbar Move push

Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah and his council of ministers started working from the civil secretariat in Jammu on Monday—the first sign that the "Darbar Move," the biannual practice of shifting the administrative base to the winter capital that was stopped in 2021, may be back on the cards.

- HT Correspondent

Deputy chief minister Surinder Choudhary, cabinet ministers Satish Sharma and Sakina Itoo, chief secretary Atal Dulloo, administrative secretaries, and heads of departments also resumed work from Jammu. "Chief secretary Atal Dulloo and other administrative secretaries received Omar Abdullah upon his arrival at the civil secretariat. The chief minister was also presented bouquets by the officials of J&K non-gazetted employees association," said an official aware of the matter.

"Chief minister Omar Abdullah had three meetings lined up for the day at 11:30 a.m., 3:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. The first meeting was on the tourism sector," the official added.

However, there was no guard of honor to the chief minister by a contingent of a police force—a tradition that signaled the Darbar Move, when official records in trucks and hundreds of government employees in buses were ferried to Jammu before the onset of the winter.