add_main_imageIt is a story repeated all too often in India. A politician decides to exploit a communally sensitive situation to his advantage while the district administration goes missing. The result: loss of life and property.
The happenings in Kishtwar town in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) are a variation on this theme. Senior civil and police officers of the district holed themselves up in a rest house while fury raged in the town. The state government only woke up after the damage had been done.
J&K is not an easy state to administer. But the logic of having district officers is to ensure that such matters can be sorted out locally without higher intervention.
The roots of such problems may be varied, but preventing them does not require anything more than decisive district officers. It is time state governments cracked the whip on such errant administrators instead of merely transferring them.
