Can't fulfil promises until statehood restored, says Omar Abdullah

Srinagar, Oct 16 (IANS) The elected government in J&K, headed by Omar Abdullah, completed one year in office on Thursday without fulfilling the promises made to people during the election.

However, the party leaders and spokespersons of the ruling National Conference (NC) say one year is too short a period to review the government’s score.

Right from the day it took office, the Chief Minister, his colleagues in the cabinet, and the NC have been raising the pitch for restoration of statehood to J&K. In its first session, the legislative assembly passed a resolution seeking the restoration of statehood.

The central government is committed to the restoration of statehood to J&K, but maintains that it would be restored at the proper time.

The Supreme Court is presently hearing a petition for restoration of statehood, and during the last hearing, the apex court granted the Union government four weeks to file its response.

Omar Abdullah is on record as having said that he is running the government like a horse expected to run with its legs tied.

Omar’s father and the octogenarian president of the NC, Farooq Abdullah, has said that running a J&K government is like walking on the edge of a sword. Omar says all his administrative secretaries, who during his previous tenure as the Chief Minister of the state would give him ten options for getting a job done, are now giving him ten excuses for not doing a certain job.

As per the constitution, the Lt Governor (L-G), Manoj Sinha, has repeatedly said that he controls police and law and order, and he knows his limits and would never cross them.

The central services like the IAS and the IPS also come within the powers of the L-G, but only to the extent of their postings.

As administrative secretaries of various departments headed by cabinet ministers and the chief minister, the administrative secretaries are subordinate to the decisions of the elected government.

The cabinet headed by Omar Abdullah has decided to restore the half-yearly practice of shuttling top government offices between Srinagar and Jammu.

The over one-century-old practice of the autocratic rulers of J&K had been dispensed with by the L-G. After Omar Abdullah decided to restore the practice, all top offices of the government will close in Srinagar by the end of the current month to restart functioning from Jammu in November.

The decision to restore what is called the ‘Darbar Move’ will be implemented as per the decision of the elected government. Recently, the government ordered 108 transfers of senior and middle-rung JKAS officers. The order has been implemented without any interference.

Various ministers of the government are taking decisions, holding meetings and supervising the functioning of all departments other than the Home Department and they have full control over these departments.

Education, healthcare, roads and buildings, revenue, finance, forest, rural development, irrigation and flood control, social welfare, law and every other department except the home department are under the elected government.

All deputy commissioners and Senior superintendents of police in all the 20 districts of J&K, irrespective of whether they belong to the IAS/IPS or the JKAS and the JKPS, are to carry out all developmental and related orders of the elected government.

Despite these powers, the ministers of the government and leaders of the NC say in public that unless statehood is restored, the public issues cannot be addressed in J&K.

The elected government on Wednesday increased the constituency development fund available to the MLAs from the existing Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore, and the same is being implemented.

It is commonly believed in J&K that although statehood is a promise the central government has to fulfil, pleading that the elected government has no powers is like enjoying all the perks and refusing to take responsibility for non-performance.

The sooner the elected government realises that it has to perform and cannot always blame a lack of statehood for non-performance, the better for the people and those in power in J&K.

--IANS

sq/dan