Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 23: In order to give much-needed fillip to the developmental activities and take the governance at the door steps of people residing in the remotest corners of the State, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah has floated a novel idea of holding Cabinet meetings in such areas. The beginning is being made from May 30 when State Cabinet will meet at Karnah in Kupwara district.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, shared this new idea with his Cabinet colleagues during the last Cabinet meeting held at summer capital of the State on May 16 and it was welcomed by all the Cabinet Ministers as the plan was aimed at taking governance at the door-steps of the people of remotest corners, which otherwise remain out of the reach of the Ministers and always clamor for the attention of the Government.
“Since there was unanimity in giving practical shape to the idea floated by the Chief Minister, the General Administration Department today issued a communiqué mentioning that next Cabinet meeting is being held on May 30, 2012 at 12.30 am at Karnah in district Kupwara”, sources said while disclosing that this is for the first time in the history of the State that any Cabinet meeting is being held outside the Civil Secretariat or the Chief Minister’s residence.
The process of taking Cabinet outside the Civil Secretariat made beginning during the tenure of former Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed when he started holding Cabinet-cum-District Development Board meetings at the District Headquarters across the State.
However, Omar Abdullah has decided to take Cabinet beyond the District Headquarters and to the remotest corners, where people have feeling of neglect and generally complain that their areas don’t find mention in the itinerary of the Ministers’ tours.
“The objective behind this idea is to ensure that after the Cabinet meeting, the Ministers get an opportunity to take stock of the grievances of the people pertaining to their respective departments and redress the same on the spot”, sources said, adding “besides bringing an end to the feeling of neglect among the people of remotest areas, the presence of all the Cabinet Ministers in such areas would have major impact on the ground from development point of view”.
“This would also make the field functionaries of all the departments accountable and ensure better coordination between different departments at ground level which is otherwise lacking”, sources further said.
“This initiative would also ensure on-the-spot inspection of the ongoing developmental works in such areas and remove any hurdle in the timely completion of the same”, sources said while disclosing that initially Government has a plan to hold one Cabinet meeting in a month in such areas to ascertain the people’s problems at their door steps.
“Any further decision vis-à-vis this plan would be taken only after ascertaining the outcome of holding Cabinet meetings in such areas”, sources added.
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