Srinagar, Jan. 26 -- Kashmir is perhaps the only place in India where entire government departments behave like seasonal shops - they open briefly when nature or crisis forces them to, and then quietly shut down for the rest of the year, while continuing to draw full salaries, full authority, and full budgets - in return for part-time jobs.

This is not a metaphor. It is an administrative disease.

Kashmir has built a governance system where institutions are event-driven, not service-driven; where departments exist to respond, not to prevent; where files move all year, but work happens only for a few weeks.

The result is a strange paradox: Kashmir has too many departments and too little governance.

The Mechanical Engineering Department:...