Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Mar, 07:
The President Dogra Sadar Sabha (DSS) and Former Minister Th. Gulchain Singh Charak held a special press meeting along with his core group members at the Sabha Bhawan, Dogra hall, Jammu. The members conveyed their gratitude and admiration of the Governor’s approval but felt that this marks only a beginning, since much more is required to be done. Th. Gulchain Singh Charak appreciated the meeting of the governing body Mubarak Mandi, Jammu Heritage Society at Raj Bhawan and the Governor’s approval of the Mubarak Mandi Master Plan; however he expressed his dismay over the exclusion of the non-official members, in defiance of the statutory rules of the society. He stressed the need of including some knowledgeable persons of History stream and those connected with the heritage site as non-official members to gain from their knowledge and experience. It was pointed out that the master Plan has no reference of connectivity through the Gandola rope way by vertical lift in stages or an altered rope way destination in conformity of the original plan; as was discussed with the Advisor to the Governor Shri Khurshid A Ganai while giving him a power point presentation.
Appreciating the plan of digitization, he pointed out that this must be done within the Mubarak Mandi complex, under supervision of the custodians, to save transit damages to the very fragile documents while shifting to secretariat as also to retain secrecy of certain sensitive records and avoiding unnecessary exposure and undesirable publicity defying secrecy norms.
Former minister recalled that a sum of 50 lakh was sanctioned and approved by the Finance Commissioner, Planning, Development and Monitoring department, Civil Secretariat, Srinagar on 3.1.16 for shifting the archive documents to Old Information building after its restoration. He exposed that based on the information received in response of a RTI, from the concerned Department, only a sum of Rs 10,055,454 has been spent and nothing has been mentioned about the balance of Rs 39,44,546. No money has been spent to renovate the Old Information building, at all. The expenditures made appear exorbitant, unjustified, and wasteful if not fraudulent. He quoted specific details like purchase of Khaddar cloth worth, 2 Lakh 40 thousand, Carriage Charges from Mubarak Mandi to Kala Kendra, Bikram Chowk Rs 87,500 plus labour charges for the same, Rs 54, 600. Steel Racks for restoration which never took place at Kala Kendra worth 6 Lakh 500. Apparently there was no restoration work involved there. It was brought out that the place and processes being unsuitable, these fragile shifted records are perishing and feared that some may have already perished. The DSS demands that the whole gamut needs thorough investigation, and initiating the renovation of the Old Information Department building and shifting of records in that building. The digitization must be planned within the complex. The members of the DSS Core Committee expressed their great disappointment, painful dejection and felt disheartened that not one among the local Dogra political leaders have cared for , came forward to care or feel concerned about this priceless valuable treasure of our ancestors being put to ruin by deliberate apathy over the past decades. Th. Gulchain Singh Charak, said like many earlier occasions he once again calls upon all those who have descended from the Duggar Pradesh, irrespective of cast community and political affiliation to come together to save their roots from getting extinct and being lost forever.
The important members in the Core Group were Vice President Col. Karan Singh, Col. Dr Virendra K. Sahi, VrC, Brig M. S. Jamwal, Prem Sagar Gupta, Amanat Ali Shah, Gambhir Dev Singh Charak, Shankar Singh and S. Kulbir Singh.
