Jammu, December 15
The inaccessibility to Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is causing anxiety among senior leaders of the ruling Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.

It has been one and a half month now since Mr Azad replaced PDP leader Mufti Sayeed, but top leaders of the Congress were cooling their heels to have a glimpse of the Chief Minister belonging to their own party. The Congress has returned to power in the state after a gap of about 30 years.

The rank and file of the party has now started discussing in open the issue of inaccessibility of Mr Azad. It is being pointed out that certain top leaders of the party have repeatedly put in their request for an audience with the Chief Minister, but are still waiting for a word from his secretariat. They cry that Mr Azad should now shun his Delhi tag and acclimatise with the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

A number of Congress activists said there had been no problem in meeting Chief Ministers in the past, including Mufti Sayeed, Dr Farooq Abdullah and even Sheikh Abdullah. But, now when their own party was in power the Chief Minister’s Office and residence have been virtually declared out of bounds for them.

The doors of the Chief Ministers during the previous Congress regimes, when Mr G.M. Sadiq and Syed Mir Qasim ruled the state, had been always open for the workers who were considered the best source of feedback from the grass-roots level.

Although Dr Farooq Abdullah was accused of having been surrounded by a coterie of bureaucrats, he never closed his doors to the National Conference activists and for others too.

However, senior Congressmen here, who did not want to be quoted, are surprised over the indifferent attitude of Mr Azad. They appreciate the crusade of Mr Azad against corruption, but fear that the party would be the ultimate loser in case he did not immediately shun his Delhi tag. Things here are totally different and unlike a Central minister, the Chief Minister, particularly that of Jammu and Kashmir, has to make himself available to the common people who that have faced the brunt of terrorism for the past 16 years.

A senior leader of the Congress pointed out that Mr Azad might be trying to copy the functioning of the former Governor, Mr Jagmohan, who became very popular in the state by taking action against corrupt officials. But Mr Jagmohan was at the same time the most easily accessible to the common man.

The only occasion when Mr Azad met the party legislators and councillors here was during a dinner he hosted for them recently. A senior party functionary said during the dinner party Mr Azad said he would take another month to open his doors to them. Another leader said he got an opportunity to have a glimpse of Mr Azad last week when Mrs Sonia Gandhi landed at the airport here to catch a helicopter to the earthquake-hit areas of the state.

Not many Congress leaders were allowed to enter the airport as Mr Azad himself approved the list of the invitees, he claimed.

As a Central minister Mr Azad was a regular visitor to the PCC Headquarters just near the Chief Minister’s official residence, but has not gone there once after taking over the reins of the state.

A former MP drew parallel between the present scenario here and that in Madhya Pradesh during the regime of Mr Digvijay Singh when the Congress lost its mass base, as the Mr Singh remained confined to the secretariat.

However, the senior party leaders are keeping mum at the moment because Mr Azad enjoys the blessings of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Moreover, he has yet to expand his ministry and no one want to lose the opportunity by opening his mouth against the style of Mr Azad’s functioning.

Mr Azad had recently said that he did not want to waste time in gossip as he had in hand the important job of putting back on the rails the systematic functioning of government offices and removing the ills that had over the years crept into the system.

His supporters claim that the Chief Minister was himself occasionally flying to the remote areas of the state to have a firsthand information about the wellbeing of the people, so there was no point accusing him of keeping the common people away.

On the other hand, the legislators were eagerly waiting for the special session of the legislature to begin when, they hope, they would be in a position to meet the Chief Minister frequently.

Jammu, December 15
The Jammu and Kashmir Government today ordered that the Secretariat would now function from 9.30 am to 5 pm without any lunch break.

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had a few days ago changed the timings of offices from 9 am to 5 pm.