J K News Today
Jammu, November 7 ( JKNT)
It was a different world full of life for Kashmiri employees on the opening day of the civil secretariat here today, sitting in a stark contrast to the dull and fearful atmosphere back in their home and places of work in the Valley.
Many a Kashmiri employees, as also some of their Jammu colleagues were seen rubbing their eyes to feel that what they were seeing is real. Last four months in Kashmir were “ deserted, dull and only walls of stones overlooking us like demons about to consume life,” said Ghulam Rasool , an employee from the Valley who had attended the office in secretariat in Srinagar just for few days.
“Jammu looks like a different world now , here it is life of friends and smiles, something that had got eroded from our lives,” recalled Ali Mohammad, who has been part of Durbar move for more than 25 years now.
One of the employees , who did not want to be quoted, also noticed a changed personality in Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti . “ She is wearing a real smile today,” he said. These many ministers and officers all together is a rarity .
Chief Minister would come to her office on some days, climb up to her office in lift, with her sad eyes looking for signs of life around. She would gently greet the liftman and reach her office, meet few visitors, clear some files and then she would return home. “ That was her life in Srinagar,” the employee summed up.
They hoped that this marks a new beginning and the news of life here travels back to Kashmir.
Since July 8 after the death of Hizb-ul-Mujahadeen Commander Burhan Wani, the normal life in Kashmir had become a casualty because of stone throwing protests, shutdowns, acts of arson and the pellet showering guns.
The secretariat work had come to a stand still and that of the other offices. Employees were sandwiched between the shutdown enforcing stone throwers and call for duty. “ Those were very difficult times,” Ghulam Rasool said.
“The life here has given us a new hope to live a stress-free life, at least for next six months till the time the offices are here,” he said.
