*CSC report on NFSA likely to be discussed
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 1: State Cabinet, which is meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed tomorrow morning, is going to give approval to the proposal of the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs regarding holding of Budget Session for 2016-17 financial year from January 15, 2016. Moreover, the Cabinet will accord approval to induction of 58 officers of the different departmental feeding services to the Time Scale of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service.
The State Cabinet vide its Decision No.155/12/2015 dated November 19, 2015 had decided to pre-pone the Budget Session in order to facilitate the Government agencies to improve their capacity to make expenditure and optimum utilization of funds during the next financial year.
The Cabinet had also ordered that the proposal for summoning of the State Legislature shall be processed by the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs as per the provisions of the State Constitution.
Thereafter, the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs discussed the pre-poning of the Budget Session with Speaker of Legislative Assembly and Chairman of the Legislative Council and now a proposal is being presented before the State Cabinet tomorrow morning for summoning of Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council for the Budget Session 2016-17 on January 15, 2016.
Following the Cabinet approval, the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs will approach the Governor to summon and address the Joint Session of the State Legislature on January 15 at 11 am at Jammu in terms of Section 53 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, sources said.
It is pertinent to mention here that both the Houses of State Legislature were prorogued by the Governor on October 15, 2015 after Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council were adjourned sine-die by their respective Presiding Officers on October 10 and 12 respectively.
The proposal to pre-pone Budget Session was mooted by the Finance Minister, Dr Haseeb A Drabu keeping in view the fact that delayed preparation of Budget, approval and release of funds compromise the quality of expenditure and many a times non-execution of schemes resulting in time and cost overruns.
Under the new system, the Budget would get passed by middle of February and the process of holding District Development Board meetings would be finalized not later than last week of March. This would also help in mid-year review of the Budget and economy.
According to the sources, the Cabinet would also accord approval to the proposal of the General Administration Department regarding appointment by promotion of the members of different departmental feeding services to the Time Scale of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services. The names of these officers were cleared by the Establishment-cum-Selection Committee in its meeting held on October 20, 2015.
These officers are Abdul Qayoom Mir (CAPD), Priyanka Bhat, Jagdish Singh, Mohammad Afzal, Nazir Ahmad Kangoo, Mohammad Abdullah Malik and Mohammad Yousaf Geelani (Cooperative Department), Rajesh Kumar Basotra, Navdeep Wazir, Dhirender Sharma, Ashwani Kumar and Ghulam Mehdi (Revenue Department), Gul Hassan Kripak, Shabir Ul-Hassan, Narayan Dutt, Hitesh Gupta, Sukh Paul Singh, Chand Kishore Sharma, Devinder Kumar, Amit Vermani, Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Shahnawaz Shah, Abdul Rashid Mir, Sonu Pargal, Charanjit Singh, Reyaz Ahmad Malik, Pankaj Kumar Anand, Om Parkash, Anil Kumar, Kartar Singh, Ajeet Singh, Abdul Qayoom Sheikh, Zameer Ahmad Reshu, Rifat Naseem, Ghulam Mohammad Mir, Nissar Ahmad Malik, Davinder Paul Singh, Ghulam Mustafa Indrabi, Sushil Kumar Khajuria, Masood Ahmad Qazi, Mohammad Sadiq Akhoon and Anil Kumar Thakur (Rural Development Department).
The officers of Social Welfare Department who are being appointed to the Time Scale of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service are Ashwani Kumar, Mohd Asdulah Rather, Qazi Irfan Rasool Zargar, Wasim Raja Dar, Naresh Kumar, Ghulam Nabi, Narinder Kour, Dr Zahoor Ahmed Raina, Reyaz Ahmed Beigh, Hamida Akhter, Samar Naik, Shahid Mehmood, Raj Mohammad, Mohd Aslam, Rashida Akhtar and Usha Kumari.
The Cabinet will also accord sanction to the release of Selection Grade of KAS in favour of Anil Koul, Moses Kunzang, Nazir Ahmad Baba and Sudershan Kumar in compliance to the order passed by the Supreme Court.
They further said that report of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA) along with dissenting note of Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department would also come up for discussion in the Cabinet.
In response to a question, sources said, “the possibility of Cabinet ordering some transfers in civil and police administration cannot be ruled out”.
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