- LG may not support the UT Cabinet fear some people but LG as an Institution will surely side with Cabinet for every fair action
- Although as CM of UT Omar has some Legislative & Executive limitations but still he can freely do some Good & Undo some Bads
- With Elected popular Government in place Distantly placed J&K Subjects once again hope for Administrative & Legislative Rationalization
DAYA SAGAR
Those who profess that LG may not support the UT Cabinet are totally wrong since LG will surely side with the UT Cabinet for every fair action/ proposal even where the State cabinet does not have direct jurisdiction. No doubt the In terms of NC election manifesto Omar Cabinet has passed a resolution demanding that Statehood for J&K should be restored earliest which links the National Conference – Congress alliance demand as well as part of NC manifesto and LG has also endorsed although that that is for Union Government to get executed through parliament of India.
The UT Cabinet has many fields where it can work without any limitation and it is now time for Omar Abdullah to prove his truthfulness to the common cause particularly like fairly addressing the legitimate issues of the youth/woman/under privileged areas & and people of J&K like (i) filling all vacancies in government departments within 180 days but that should be on regular basis laying first priority (ii) to immediately regularize all the casual / daily wage workers given regularization authority to the head of the department (Engineers like that of PWD/ PHE/PDD, (iii) ordering undoing any contractual appointments / Academic Arrangement appoints in higher education as well as in professional colleges like Government College of Engineering Jammu and advertising through PSC all vacant post including where any contractual/ academic arrangement appointments have been made (iv) to order providing 200 units of electricity free to each consumers and providing free drinking water to each household as promised in the manifesto atleast wef 01-11-2024 (v) as per the manifesto promise order providing Rs. 5000 per month to female heads of household & 12 cooking gas cylinders free of cost per year s to EWS ( the definition must be made public so that the wrong doers could be made known) and ordering entitlement of woman to travel in public transport immediately ( why not wef 01-11-2024/), (vi) enhancing old age and widow pension to Rs.3000/ pm,(vii) nominating the UT level minorities ( religious ) and also appointment of J&K Minority Commission as promised, (vii) ordering immediately to increase FREE rice allocation to 10 kg per person per month for some and for general public entitlement to 10 kg rice/Atta per person per month,(viii) providing Village & Mohalla Clinics for basic healthcare and emergency care with regular doctors & medicines availability,(ix) making education free upto University/ PG level for all residents of J&K ( say atleast domicile) as promised in manifesto (J&K State Constitution under directive principles had also said so),(x) ofcourse resumption of Full Darbar Move effective November 2024,(xi) the NC manifesto indirectly hints at caring for those having inadequate employment opportunities as well as those under employed on unfair wages ( even in Government services ) like the SPOs (special police officers working at Rs.6000 to -18000 ( after 15 Yrs service) /pm wages ) and the Anganwadi Workers (AWW) they can now be ordered for payment of the “Legitimate Wages” which could be atleast of L-2 of the VIIth pay commission grades. Ofcourse orders for making the Job Application free of cost for all the examinations should have been issued by this time..
Omar Abdullah had in 2014 as Chief of J&K State very compassionately addressed the sufferings of the unemployed youth then being exploited even by the government ( what to talk of private sector employers) after he received some representations / some facts were brought to his notice by stories published in State Times Daily by withdrawing his own governments (NC – Congress) order of 2011(Order No.257-F of 2011 dated 27-10-2011 under Cabinet Decision 193/23/2011 Dated 19.10.2011, based on recommendations of a committee constituted vide G. O. No.319- GAD of 2011 dated 10-03-2011 , awn in 2014 ) after a Cabinet Decision iof 31-05-2014 which had laid down unfair ‘Modalities’ for fixed salary mode of Recruitment in Non-Gazetted categories for future recruitment for class-IV, III / other Non gazetted posts where under new appointee was to be paid around 1/3rd of due wages for some years.
After the election results were declared NC leadership has also opined that the people of distant / remote areas have shown more nearness to National Conference .With Elected popular Government in place distantly placed J&K Subjects atleast now hope for Administrative & Legislative Rationalization. So strangely the areas that during the times of J&K State had more elected Members in the Legislative Council ( 14 MLCs) in terms of Section-50 of J&K Constitution had so unfairly lesser members in (37) the Legislative Assembly on delimitation and those with lesser elected MLCs (12) had more MLAs (46) position has not much changed changed even in J&K as UT after 2019.
No doubt it is also a well read fact that the distant and backward areas have not been adequately attended by earlier governments, rather have been not fairly attended so far which could be well adjudged from the present placement of number of district administrative units in and around areas in Chenab valley, Pir Panchal region and present districts of Udhampur & Kathua that have larger distant & remote areas less adequately connected but in 1978 there were 6 Districts ( Jammu, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda, Rajouri, Poonch ) in Jammu Division and only 3 Distrcts ( Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla) in Kashmir Valley and through the very irrational reorganisation of districts done in 1979 ( NC lead Government SRO 306 of 6/6/1979 ) & 2006/07 ( Congress- PDP Government SRO 185 of 22 May 2007) there are now 10 districts each in Jammu Division as well as in Kashmir Valley ( Kashmir Division of JK UT).Omar Abdullah could easily prove the truthfulness of his concern by immediately ordering reorganisation of District Administrative units so as to crrect the imbalance for which he has no administrative / legislative limitations.
No doubt in the manifesto there are also some promises which could not be executed by the Omar government without the blessings of the LG but that may only take some more time and LG will surely go far all common good . The Omar Abdullah government should immediately initiate actions / proposals on such promises like (i) Eased Passport Verification: Ensure that passport verification procedures are simplified, removing hurdles and making it easier for people to obtain passports, particularly getting extended Tatkal facility to J&K and issue of extra pages to persons whose passport pages are finished before expiry in not more than two days. Ofcourse in this case GOI has to act but Omar Cabinet must atleast initiate. (ii) safeguard domestic farmers and also order a minimum support price for apple for domestic farmers and to make all efforts to exempt horticulture products from GST regime ( directly or indirectly) ( iii) taking leads from the experiences of states who have already opted for old pension scheme reinstate the old pension scheme (iv) .order to increase the medical allowance of pensioners and family pensioners from existing Rs 300 to Rs 1000 per month (iv) resolve all legitimate land lease cases for extension / transfers / grant of free hold rights through a considerate lease policy covering even the regularization of unauthorized long term interrupted possessions on government lands.
(The writer is a Sr Journalist & a known analyst of J&K affairs).