*Jammu gets more Tehsils, Niabats; Valley Sub-Divns, Patwar Halqas
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 13: Mushtaq Ganaie Committee has recommended creation of a total of 955 new administrative units, which include Sub-Divisions, Tehsils, Niabats, CD Blocks and Patwar Halqas across Jammu and Kashmir. Of these administrative units, Jammu has an edge over Kashmir valley in respect of Tehsils and Niabats while as Valley outnumbers Jammu as far as Sub-Divisions and Patwar Halqas are concerned.
According to the confidential report, whose relevant contents have been shared with EXCELSIOR by some of the Cabinet Sub-Committee members, Mushtaq Ganaie Committee has proposed a total of 23 Sub-Divisions across the State, which include 10 for Jammu region, 12 for Kashmir valley and one for Ladakh region.
Similarly, it has recommended creation of 57 Tehsils—-28 for Jammu region, 25 for Kashmir valley and 4 for Ladakh region comprising Leh and Kargil districts.
As far as Niabats are concerned, Mushtaq Ganaie Committee has made recommendation of 79 units which include 40 for Jammu region, 34 for Kashmir valley and 5 for Ladakh region. Likewise, it has proposed creation of 63 Community Development blocks, which include 29 for Jammu, 31 for Kashmir valley and three for Ladakh.
As per the report, creation of a total of 733 Patwar Halqas has been recommended for the entire Jammu and Kashmir. Of these, 340 have been proposed for Jammu region, 385 for Kashmir valley and 8 for Ladakh region.
According to the official sources, at present, there are 813 Patwar Halqas in Jammu region as against 901 in Kashmir valley. Similarly, there are 126 Niabats in Jammu and 131 in Kashmir valley. Likewise, there are 77 CD Blocks in Kashmir valley as against 66 in Jammu province while as there are 37 Tehsils in Jammu as against 45 in Kashmir valley. There are 11 Sub-Divisions in Jammu and 10 in Kashmir valley.
Sources said that for the creation of 955 proposed administrative units, Government would require whopping amount of more than Rs 800 crore, which include recurring and non-recurring expenditure.
“The Revenue Department has worked out the requirement of around Rs 200 crore recurring revenue per annum, which include salaries of the staff, and more than Rs 600 crore for non-recurring expenditure (creation of infrastructure) for the proposed administrative units”, sources informed. In addition to this, an amount of more than Rs 50 crore would be required for acquisition of land for establishment of these administrative units. Moreover, the Government would have to create more than 4600 posts under various categories for these units.
“This indicates that after taking decision on the creation of new administrative units the Government would have to chalk out strategy in order to meet the huge financial implications as under the prevailing circumstances it doesn’t have the enough sources to meet this expenditure on its own”, sources further said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the process of ascertaining the demands of people for new administrative units was actually started in 2007 when the Government had constituted a Committee headed by former Chief Secretary of the State, Dr S S Bloeria. However, the report of the Committee was termed as ‘inconclusive’ in 2009 and in January 2010, the Committee was revived with Mushtaq Ahmad Ganai as its head.
The Committee submitted its report to the Government on July 14, 2011 following which the Revenue Department was directed to prepare a note after detailed examination of the recommendations for discussion and final decision in the Cabinet. When the note was placed before the Cabinet in January 2012, it was decided to seek more details from the Revenue Department for taking holistic view of the entire issue.
However, since January 2012 the Revenue Department didn’t come up with the information and the issue received the due attention after one and half year—on July 2, 2013 when the Chief Minister, while chairing the Cabinet meeting, directed the Chief Secretary to ensure submission of detailed note on proposed administrative units as early as possible.
When the issue again came up, a Cabinet Sub-Committee was constituted on July 24, 2013 for working out the mechanism for implementation of the report of Mushtaq Ganaie Committee report and taking on board fresh demands. The latest deadline set for the Cabinet-Sub-Committee for submission of report to the Cabinet is expiring on January 15, 2014.
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