Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Mar 10: Consequent to the taking over of new regime in Jammu and Kashmir, the Estate Department has asked the former Ministers to evict the official residential accommodations under their occupation for allotment of the same to the new incumbents in State Government.
While Chief Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed has shifted to the CM designate residence at the Residency Road in winter capital of the State, the Government has identified the official residential accommodations for the Council of Ministers and a formal order for allotment of the same was issued, authoritative sources informed the Excelsior.
Except a few, majority of the Ministers have been allotted the official residences of their respective predecessor in the previous Government, who are understood to be asked to vacate the accommodation with immediate effect, sources added.
The former Minister will have to vacate the official accommodation under their occupation with immediate effect and if the same is not done, they would be served an eviction notice giving them an ultimatum of two weeks, sources explained.
Pertinent to mention that in the Mufti Sayeed led PDP-BJP coalition Government, there are 24 Ministers, including 16 Cabinet and eight Ministers of State. The Legislative Assembly has 89 members, including two nominated female MLAs while in the Upper House, 11 new members were elected recently.
According to the sources, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh has been allotted the Government accommodation opposite State Guest House near Canal Road, where the former Dy CM Tara Chand was residing.
Similarly, the Minister for Industries Chander Parkash Ganga and Minister for Social Welfare and Forest Bali Bhagat have been allotted the residential accommodation, earlier provided to former Minister Raman Bhalla and Sakina Ittoo, respectively.
PHE Minister Choudhary Sukhnandan has been allotted a Government bungalow at Ghulami Bagh near Canal, which was already vacant while Health and Medical Education Minister Lal Singh will continue at his PWD accommodation at Gandhi Nagar. Minister for Science and Technology Sajjad Lone has been allotted the accommodation, which was earlier with Qamar Ali Akhoon.
The official accommodation of former Minister Dr Manohar Lal has gone to MoS Chering Dorjay while Aijaz Khan’s accommodation has been allotted to Priya Sethi. Pawan Gupta and Sunil Sharma have been allotted residential accommodations at Gandhi Nagar while A G Kohli has been accommodated in Ghulami Bagh.
PDP Ministers Haseeb Drabu and A R Veeri have been allotted the official residences of their respective predecessors A R Rather and Peerzada Mohd Sayeed. Official accommodation of Nawang Rigzin Jora as then Minister, has gone to Abdul Haq Khan while Sajjad Bukhari has been allotted the accommodation of Choudhary Ramzan.
Ghulam Nabi Lone has been allotted the official accommodation of G H Mir, Altaf Bukhari of Akbar Lone, Nayeem Akhtar of Nasir Aslam Wani, Mohd Ashraf Mir of Saifullah Mir and Asiya Naqash of Tanvir Sadiq.
Besides the Ministers, the newly elected legislators are also being provided residential accommodations in a phased manner though not immediately, sources informed and added that no residential accommodation has yet been identified for the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who will be now the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly.
A similar pattern is likely to be adopted for providing official residences to the Ministers in the summer capital but the process for the same will be initiated next month, sources said.
Follow our WhatsApp channel