Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 30: The Cabinet Sub-Committee (CSC) on creation of new administrative units has decided to seek another extension from the State Cabinet, which is meeting tomorrow morning, for the completion of task assigned to it. The decision was taken as both the Coalition partners—Congress and National Conference were of the opinion that there should not be any lacuna in the report and justice should be provided to all the areas as per the laid down parameters.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that Cabinet Sub-Committee, which met under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister, Tara Chand, this evening, unanimously decided to approach the Cabinet for seeking another extension in order to complete the left over exercise and prepare comprehensive report vis-à-vis modalities for the implementation of Mushtaq Ganaie Committee recommendations and the fresh demands received from different quarters.
The members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee, after thorough discussion on the subject, reached to a consensus that a final look has to be made on the Ganaie Committee report especially in the light of fresh demands so that there won’t be any practical difficulty in creation of new units, sources said, adding “the period of the last extension would be decided by the Cabinet tomorrow”.
According to the sources, the members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee were of the opinion that the criteria of population, distance and geographical terrain of the areas should be minutely considered so that nobody would be able to raise objections on the recommendations/report of the Committee.
“Though Mushtaq Ganaie Committee has mentioned that this criterion was adopted yet large number of its recommendations were not in consonance with these norms”, sources informed.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Cabinet Sub-Committee, which was constituted on July 24, 2013, was given previous extension on December 19 and the period of the same is expiring tomorrow.
According to the sources, prior to the Cabinet Sub-Committee meeting, majority of the Congress Ministers had a separate meeting wherein everybody was of the opinion that Committee should complete its task without any further delay so that people, who have been yearning for the new administrative units during the past several years, could be provided justice. But, at the same time, they stressed that there should not be any favoritism and report should be strictly on the basis of merits.
Minister for Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Minister for Agriculture Production, Minister for Higher Education, Minister for Planning and Development Department and Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs are the members of the Cabinet Sub-Committee.
As per the information available with EXCELSIOR, Mushtaq Ganaie Committee has recommended 340 Patwar Halqas for Jammu province and 393 for Kashmir valley; 10 Sub-Divisions for Jammu and 13 for Kashmir; 28 Tehsils for Jammu as against 29 for Kashmir valley.
Similarly, it has recommended 40 Niabats for Jammu and 39 for Kashmir valley and 29 CD blocks for Jammu as against 34 in Kashmir valley.
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.
The recommendation of more administrative units for Kashmir valley in comparison to Jammu region is being justified by certain quarters on the ground that as per 2011 Census Jammu region has 53.51 lakh population as compared to 69.72 lakh in Kashmir valley, sources said.
They informed that as against 228 fresh representations received from various quarters, which include common masses, Panchs and Sarpanchs, various organizations, MLAs/MLCs and Ministers, 70% of them have already been taken care of by the Mushtaq Ganaie Committee while as remaining have been considered by the Cabinet Sub-Committee and would become part of its recommendation to the Cabinet.
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