Baseer gets Planning, I&C; Farooq Agriculture, Bhatnagar Education

LG allocates Sharma’s portfolios to 3 Advisors

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today ordered reshuffle of portfolios among his three Advisors allocating them the Departments held by KK Sharma, who had resigned as the Advisor recently after his appointment as the State Election Commissioner.
As per an order issued by the General Administration Department (GAD), Advisor Baseer Ahmad Khan has been allotted two new Departments including Planning, Development and Monitoring and Industries and Commerce in addition to the Departments already held by him.
Advisor Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar has been allocated School Education, Higher Education and Skill Development as new Departments apart from those which are with him.
The new Departments given to Advisor Farooq Khan are Agriculture Production and Farmers’ Welfare and Horticulture.
All the new Departments which have been allocated among Farooq Khan, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar and Baseer Ahmad Khan were held by the outgoing Advisor KK Sharma.
The Lieutenant Governor now has only three Advisors.
Farooq Khan now will be Incharge of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Social Welfare, Tribal Affairs, Labour and Employment, Youth Services and Sports, ARI and Trainings, Cooperative, Elections, Haj & Auqaf, Agriculture Production and Farmer’s Welfare and Horticulture.
Advisor Bhatnagar will have charge of the Departments including Health and Medical Education, Public Works (R&B), Jal Shakti, Transport, Animal/Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries, Revenue, School Education, Higher Education and Skill Development.
The Departments which will be with Baseer Ahmad Khan are Power Development, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabilitation & Re-construction, Culture, Tourism, Floriculture, Planning, Development and Monitoring and Industries and Commerce.
Advisor Bhatnagar will continue to advise the Lieutenant Governor on the matters related to Home Department and coordinate activities of the police including the Terror Monitoring Group, Force deployment, Intelligence work, preparedness for law & order, operational effectiveness, counter cross-border propaganda, jails, FSL, prosecution, Narcotics Control and POCSO matters.
Papers related to the General Administration and Home Departments and Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) will continue to be submitted by the respective Administrative Secretaries through the Chief Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor while papers pertaining to All India Services including IAS, IPS and IFS will be submitted by the respective Administrative Secretaries through the General Administration Department and the Chief Secretary for consideration of the Lieutenant Governor.
The papers related to Housing and Urban Development Department, Information Technology, Science and Technology, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Estates, Forest Ecology and Environment, Information and Mining will be submitted by the concerned Administrative Secretaries to the Lieutenant Governor through the Chief Secretary while papers of Finance, Civil Aviation and Hospitality & Protocol Departments will be submitted by the Administrative Secretaries to the Lieutenant Governor through the Financial Commissioner Finance Department.
Reshuffle among portfolios of the Advisors was necessitated after KK Sharma, a senior retired IAS officer, resigned from the post of Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor on October 30 and joined as the first State Election Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Government order said that Advisors Farooq Khan, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar and Baseer Ahmad Khan will exercise powers of the Minister under the Transaction of Business of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Rules, 2019 in respect of Departments allocated to them.