Calls upon Centre to display statesmanship
Sanjeev Pargal/
Fayaz Bukhari
JAMMU/SRINAGAR, May 7: In an apparent attempt to check frequent transfers by some of the outgoing as well as existing Ministers, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today called upon her new Team of Ministers to at least give a minimum tenure of two years to the officers to perform except in some exceptional circumstances, where the transfers become mandatory due to significant reasons.
Click here to watch video
Mehbooba passed the direction while chairing first meeting of her Council of Ministry in the Civil Secretariat, which resumed functioning today after about 10-day break due to shifting of offices from Jammu to Srinagar as a part of bi-annual Durbar Move practice.
“The officers need to perform. You should give them at least two years tenure so that they can show their worth. Frequent transfers can impact the developmental works as well as other administrative matters,” Mehbooba told the Council of Ministry in nearly 45-minute long meeting at the Civil Secretariat, Srinagar, which was held soon after inspecting the guard of honour in the Secretariat premises.
Though the Chief Minister made no mention of frequent transfers in some of the Departments, reliable sources said the Government had reports that some of the recently dropped as well as few existing Ministers had been frequently transferring the officials in their departments, leading to resentment in some of the cases.
The meeting, which was attended by majority of Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State, didn’t take any decision as it was confined to introductory and was used for inter-action only, sources said.
Mehbooba called for PDP-BJP Ministers presenting collective face in the State instead of visiting various parts of the State separately saying a message should go among the people that both the parties are working together and working well for welfare of the people and giving pace to the developmental works.
Sources said Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta also endorsed the Chief Minister’s statement that the two Alliance partners should work together for development and welfare of the State and ensure that developmental works gained momentum.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba made a passionate appeal to parents, urging them to make sure children don’t embrace death by joining militancy because “God brought all of us into this world to live a good life”.
The appeal came a day after five militants including Professor of Kashmir University and five civilians were killed in an encounter and clashes at South Kashmir’s Shopian district.
“I appeal parents to ensure children do not embrace death as god brought all of us into this world to live a good life and not for embracing death at the age of 18 and 20,” Mehbooba told reporters on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Civil Secretariat offices here:
The Chief Minister also made an appeal to the Central Government “to find a peaceful way out so that our children are saved”. “Yesterday’s happenings are extremely sad. I appeal our people in the State and the rest of the country as also the Government of India to save our children,” she said.
“In most cases, both stones and guns are in the hands of children belonging to poor families. A way out needs to be found so that our children, army soldiers and policemen are not killed”, she said.
Mehbooba said the civil society in the State and the country has a major role in finding a solution to the present difficulties of the people of the State for which they should rise to the occasion. She also appealed the national leadership of the country to show the element of compassion and display the statesmanship to get Jammu & Kashmir out of this vicious cycle of killings.
She said it is unfortunate that the ultimate victims of this violence have been the people belonging to lowest strata of society, poor and underprivileged which bear the brunt of situational uncertainties for whom earning a daily livelihood is a matter of life and death. This, she said, leads many to go for begging or sell their assets to sustain a living which inflicts more pain and injury to the social health of our system. She appealed the parents of youth to make them realize that their energies, youthfulness, dreams and aspirations are far more important and sacred to the society than their dead bodies or graves.
Earlier, the move offices including Civil Secretariat opened today after closing at Jammu on April 27.
Mehbooba arrived at the Civil Secretariat and Members of her Council of Ministers, Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Administrative Secretaries and a large number of employees of the Civil Secretariat accorded a warm welcome to the Chief Minister on her arrival.
The Chief Minister was accorded a formal guard of honour by a contingent of J&K Police on the occasion. She inspected various sections of the civil secretariat and interacted with the employees. She enquired from them about the residential and office facilities made available to them.
She also inaugurated an additional block of 16 rooms at the Civil Secretariat to add to the space there.
Mehbooba later chaired a meeting of the Council of Ministers. The meeting took a comprehensive review of the law and order and developmental scenario in the State.
A deputation of Coordination Committee of the employees also called on the Chief Minister and welcomed her on opening of Civil Secretariat offices after the Darbar Move.
Later chairing a meeting of the Administrative Secretaries, Mehbooba called for zero tolerance to corruption in administration and called upon the officers to ensure transparent and responsive governance system is made available to the people.
Mehbooba directed the officers to use their positions adequately to root out corruption from the administrative set up.
“The present situation demands that the administration be responsive, clean and prompt which you have to ensure”, she told the officers.
Mehbooba asked the officers to tour the areas frequently and monitor the implementation of District Development Board (DDB) decisions regularly. She directed them to ensure implementation of the decisions taken at the Public Outreach programmes by her at various district headquarters. She said soon she would be reviewing the pace of implementation of these decisions at various district headquarters.
The Chief Minister directed timely completion of projects under Prime Minister’s Development Project (PMDP) and in this regard asked the officers to remain in constant touch with their counterparts in Central Ministries for release of funds, furnishing of utilization certificates and completion of other formalities so that in no way get these projects delayed or slowed down.
She specifically asked for cutting the procedural delays while disposing cases, particularly relating to common people and public welfare. She asked for prompt forest clearances of projects, speedy disposal of land acquisition cases of projects and timely payment of the compensations to people.
She directed the Power Development Department to expeditiously explore the hydel potential of Chenab region which can benefit the whole State in the long run. Besides she also directed clearance of bottlenecks in the Srinagar Ring Road project and measures to improve the conditions of Batote-Kishtwar National Highway.
On tackling the unemployment problem, the Chief Minister asked recruiting agencies like PSC and SSB to fast track recruitments even as she asked the Departments to regularly refer vacant positions to these agencies for onward action. She also directed a paced-up process to conclude the regularization process of casual workers, decision about which has already been taken by the Government. She directed referring of reserve posts of doctors in Health Department to recruiting agencies at the earliest so that proper manpower is engaged on fast track basis at the earliest.
During the meeting, Mehbooba also reviewed the process of creating more posts of teachers to teach Urdu, Dogri, Punjabi and Sanskrit subjects in the schools in the State.
Chief Secretary, B B Vyas and all other Administrative Secretaries were present in the meeting.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
