SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed was in the Tagore to preside over a function when the tremors shook Kashmir. He was attending a function on poet-teacher Dina Nath Nadim that Education Ministry had convened.
When the first jolt came, we stayed put, an officer who accompanied the Chief Minister said. When it became serious, we escorted the Chief Minister and other dignitaries out of the hall. Later the function was called off.
The house was full and people were still coming, an official who was part of the event management said. Farooq Nazki had barely begun speaking to the gathering for around three minutes and Chief Minister had barely been seated that the first jolt came.
Panic triggered the entire audience fleeing the hall. Then Chief Minister and other dignitaries left the hall. Chief Minister got into his vehicle and stayed around for a few minutes and then he drove home, the official said. We witnessed the Tagore hall getting cracks.
Tagore Hall that was under floods for nearly a month was recently renovated. Post-re-inauguration, this was the first function that it hosted. The function ended almost at the take off stage.
It is amazing and incredible to come to know that the government does not have confidence on the structures and buildings it builds. Tagore Hall was recently renovated; it should not connote fear or made dignitaries fearful at the time of the earth quake. Perhaps it is a metaphor for the state of affairs and condition in Kashmir that even the government which, in theory, people repose trust and faith in does not trust the structures it builds, wrote Abul Fazal on Kashmir Observers WhatsApp group.
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