Shopian, Jul 18 (KNO): Political parties, trade bodies, and civil society members in Shopian have called for a complete shutdown (bandh) on Wednesday, July 23, to protest the government’s contentious decision to shift the Deputy Chief Education Officer (Dy CEO) office from district headquarters Shopian to Chitragam.
The bandh call comes in the wake of an all-party meeting held for the second time within a week, where leaders across party lines expressed united opposition to the move.
The participants vowed to escalate their agitation until the order is revoked.
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the joint meeting was attended by prominent leaders including MLA Shopian Advocate Shabir Ahmad Kullay, PDP’s former MLA Adv Aijaz Mir, Apni Party’s Advocate Gowhar, DDC member Raja Waheed, BJP leaders Raja Wasim and Javed Qadri along with representatives from trade unions, civil society and pesticide dealers association.
For the first time, Congress leaders also joined the all party meeting.
The gathering witnessed rare political unanimity, with leaders terming the relocation order as "politically motivated" and “against administrative logic”.
“The government must work towards creating new administrative posts instead of taking away existing ones from Shopian,” said MLA Kullay.
He said that ZEO posts should have been created for Zainapora, Turkwagam, Harmain, Kanjiullar, Kapran instead of Dy CEO.
PDP leader and former MLA Aijaz Mir said that if Dy CEO was to be shifted to Chitragam then it should have been created seperately without putting any impact on the existing one.
PDP’s Raja Waheed argued that proper educational monitoring could have been ensured by creating new ZEO (Zonal Education Officer) posts for underrepresented areas such as Kapran, Keller, and Zainapora, rather than displacing a district-level office.
"There are dozens of schools without heads and other facilities and efforts should have been made to look into such matters first," he said.
BJP’s Raja Wasim criticised what he called “selective governance”, pointing out that while offices are being shifted arbitrarily, legitimate demands like compensating hailstorm-hit farmers continue to be ignored.
Wasim said the central place shouldn't have been ignored and instead separate posts should have been created.
Civil society members and traders from various areas including Keller and other upper belts echoed these sentiments, warning of the logistical difficulties the relocation would pose.
“This decision will only burden the public with additional travel and administrative delays,” said a representative of the Shopian Traders Union.
The gathering also reiterated other long-standing demands, such as the establishment of a separate mechanical division for Shopian and improved healthcare facilities at District Hospital Shopian.
The leaders announced the formation of a joint action committee to lead the protest and coordination for the upcoming bandh. They made it clear that the protest is not aimed at opposing the development of Zainapora or any other area, but against what they see as an unfair trade-off. “Development should mean creating opportunities for all, not shifting them from one place to another,” they said.
The leaders said they are hopeful that government will look into it before it before Wednesday so that nobody may get impacted.
Meanwhile, MLA Zainapora Showkat Hussain Ganaie continues to defend the move stating that the shift is aimed at strengthening academic supervision in areas like Zainapora, Chitragam, and Harmain. “The Dy CEO has no public dealing role and DDO powers and this is purely a field-level academic post. The CEO office remains in Shopian,” he said, urging all sides to avoid politicizing the matter—(KNO)