Kashmir itself is an “Unfinished” Task hanging fire for decades and people are sceptical whether this task will ever be finished? However, they continue to live on a very strong hope that one day the “Task” will get completed. In the meantime, when one talks of development, the most common observance over last 60 years or so is that with each change of rulers, the developmental tasks started by predecessors are quite often left unfinished unless these fit into the agenda of the new ones! Usually the new rulers try to take all the credit for various projects or schemes if these get finished in their tenure.

If the projects seem impossible to complete or do not appear remunerative or worthwhile according to their mindset, these are totally given up and forgotten. No remorse is felt for vast sums of money already expended or even the impact which the abandoning of the projects may have on common people or even overall physical and psychological environment of the state. Some of the instances I remember vividly pertain to my college days during the reign of late G M Sadiq. He was said to be the most honest and upright Chief Minister who integrated Kashmir fully into the Indian Union.

He was an Indian by conviction. During his lifetime he had started the excavation of Burzahom Neolithic dwelling pits. He was keen to have a Museum to house the Stone Age implements recovered from the sites but unfortunately he died before the project he had conceived could fructify into a Museum. Now there are only pits filled with rain water and all the implements discovered there have been taken to Kolkatta Museum or somewhere else! One hopes the new Museum being built in Lal Mandi does not suffer the same fate? Another of his “Foundation Stones” which he had laid near the present Lal Ded Hospital for a most modern cold storage as part of the fruit market which used to be there, was stolen after his death and the storage never came up! The Bemina Bridge which was completed this year after almost 17 years is another example of an unfinished task passed on from one ruler to another for an awfully long time!

A living example of another unfinished or rather totally abandoned task is the Tourist Reception Centre. It was destroyed in April 2005 due to collateral damage suffered during the starting of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Bus Service. The Foundation Stone laid by late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad in early fifties as the Prime Minister of Kashmir sits ominously on the foundation of the burnt out centre. Due to wrangling between politicians about the location of the centre and the proposal of creating instead a five star hotel, the site has remained symbolic of all the unfinished tasks. There are umpteen projects going on in different parts of the state and it is not known if the implementation of these has maintained the pace or these have already slowed down after the fall of the government. These include the up gradation of Kishtwar-Kashmir Road link across Simthan Pass and the long pending Mughal Road.

The City of Srinagar had been totally neglected during the tenure of the last rulers most of whom came from the rural areas of Kashmir. It was alleged to be a revenge of the rural dwellers against the city inhabitants. There was also a political divide between the Srinagar inhabitants and others, which was alleged to be one of the reasons for the neglect of the historic “City of the Sun”. One of the most important tasks which was nearing completion and was expected to be commissioned towards the end of July as per the statement of the former Chief Minister is the International Airport at Srinagar. It had been repeatedly announced that this year direct flights would start from Srinagar in August to destinations in the Gulf such as Dubai, Jeddah, and Bahrain.

A number of articles and editorials had appeared about the illusive international takes off from the Sheikh-ul-Alam International Airport of Srinagar. The date for starting these flights had been postponed at least half a dozen times. Even the Union Minister for Water Resources had announced twice definite dates for the take off. These never materialised and one is not so sure now whether any International Flight will take off from here? The starkly visible unfinished task of past few decades is the restoration of the Dal Lake. Some movement seems to have taken place recently. It is hoped that even if the task is not finished soon, it will at least be ensured that its further deterioration is somehow arrested! Usually the break in governance caused by elections or a disruption like the fall of a government puts most of the projects on hold.

There may not be total stoppage but there is surely a slow down till the new dispensation comes into place. This is due to absence of a well defined developmental policy which should normally not be dependent on the rulers. Unfortunately in our set up everything is subservient to the whims and fancies of the political bosses. They are very fond of laying foundation stones and inaugurating projects. Sometimes same projects have been inaugurated twice by different politicians. The fault also lies with some of the bureaucrats who know how to exploit the weaknesses of the politicians. Sycophancy is not considered bad at all in this society but is rather taken to be an asset! Depending upon the Chief Executive, the single authority governance like the governor’s rule may sometimes prove to be better than the democratically elected political governors.

At the present moment after delegation of powers for decentralising the authority, the things should normally move faster. One would not only expect speeding up of projects but even quality completion as there is no political interference to stall the process for extraneous interests. Administrative Secretaries have been given virtually the powers of the Ministers and the Chief Secretary is as good as the Deputy Chief Minister. Only two things need to be done to improve the overall governance. One is the accountability of the bureaucrats delegated with such vast powers as also continuous monitoring of the projects. The second is the accessibility of the common man to the concerned authorities. A democratically elected political set up is supposed to have unlimited accessibility to the public at large.

Over last few years it had been observed that the accessibility had grown beyond reasonable limits except of the Chief Executive who was thought by many to be the least accessible person (at least for the citizens of Srinagar and Jammu) in the recent history of governance! He was fond of holding Village Durbars! The first assignment can easily be undertaken by a small task force of upright young and dynamic officers continuously on the move and reporting regularly to the Chief Executive. The accessibility requirement is inherent in normal single line administrative set up. All district heads are supposed to attend to the grievances of the public on regular basis. An ideal solution is to have a top level “Grievance Cell” for monitoring public grievances as well as subsequent redressal of the same in all districts on a weekly basis.

One hopes the single authority arrangement is transitory and normal governance resumes sooner than later. However, the events in the Parliament during the trust vote make one ponder whether it would be better to have autocratic type but upright governance in the form of Governor’s or President’s Rule for sometime than a rotten and corrupt “democratic” set up the likes of which were televised live all over the world! There appears a silver lining that the things here may not be as bad as these are in Delhi where the peoples’ representatives seem to be part of a Bazaar.