The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday ordered the annual 'Darbar Move' in the summer capital Srinagar on June 15 as opposed to its scheduled opening in the first week of May due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
This is for the first time that the administration has halted the 148-year-old tradition of moving the capital of the region twice a year.
The practice of 'Darbar Move', under which the state government functions in Jammu during six months of winter and in Srinagar during summer, was started by Maharaja Gulab Singh in 1872 to escape extreme weather conditions in the two regions of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
An order issued by the general administrative department (GAD) on Friday said, "It has been observed that the formal opening of the darbar on 04.05.2020, as ordered government order no. 464-JK (GAD) of 2020, may affect the COVID-19 control efforts in the Union territory."
The order said the formal opening of the darbar at Srinagar will take place on June 15.
"All officers assigned specific COVID-19 control tasks shall continue to function from their present location till further orders so as to ensure coronavirus control effects are not hampered," it said.
It said the civil secretariat at Srinagar shall start partial functioning on May 4.
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