SP Sharma
It will be a tight rope walk for the Ms. Mehbooba Mufti led coalition when she becomes the first woman chief minister of J&K as people would expect her to meet the bench-mark of good governance created by Governor NN Vohra during three months of Central rule in the state.
Voices in support of continuance of the Governor’s rule have started coming from the Kashmir valley and also Jammu as things have started moving towards revival of the PDP—BJP coalition government following death of Mufti Sayeed on January 7.
One of the most difficult steps Vohra took during the Governor’s rule was to try streamlining the administration and make it responsive to the problems of common people and this might be a challenging task for Mehbooba because of extreme pulls and pressures during any elected government in this state.
Vohra did in three months what the previous Mufti Sayeed led Government during its 10 months rule was unable to do for the flood victims of the Kashmir valley. To a large extent he succeeded in restoring confidence of the common people in governance and things had started moving without any political considerations. A handsome cash relief has been provided to the flood sufferers who had become restive due to the delay in taking care of them.
The foremost task before Ms.Mehbooba after taking over reins of the Government would be to carry on the legacy of clean administration without mixing the issue with the steps that she would take to retrieve the political ground that the PDP has lost in the valley during the past over one year. She might have to do a lot of explaining why she wasted three months in forming the Government following death of her father and that too without any deadline of meeting the Agenda of Alliance that she was demanding from the Central Government.
Moreover, the din created last year due to regional tensions virtually disappeared during these three months and the Governor’s administration was functioning smoothly with its focus on development activity. Political observers are keeping their fingers crossed on the issue whether Ms.Mehbooba will be in a position to further maintain this peace and tranquility.
Dissent is one thing but the way in which it happened in the state during the 10 month rule of Mufti Sayeed was unprecedented. Tension raged on the issues of beef party, slaughter of cows, waving of ISIS and Pakistani flags by miscreants in the valley and various other sensitive issues. Mufti, otherwise, was considered an able administrator and a shrewd politician who would keep the bureaucracy and the situation under his control.
The present situation is a reminder of the central rule during the tenure of Governor Jagmohan who provided a responsive and honest administration. His open durbar for the common people particularly in Kashmir was a great success as people got an opportunity to narrate their grievances before him and in many cases found a solution on the spot.
People in general were expecting that the people-friendly decisions taken by Vohra would be effectively implemented by the Coalition Government without pushing these in cold store under the pressure of bureaucracy. J&K is perhaps the only state in the country that had so far not introduced the policy of self-attestation of documents and it was during the current Governor’s rule that it was decided to implement it to benefit particularly the job seeking youth who have to run from pillar to post to get their certificates attested by gazetted officer. However, the bureaucracy was reportedly going slowly on implementation of the policy that was one of the first steps taken by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level.
The fate of the National Food Security Act implemented with modifications by Vohra will also be on the radar when the new government steps in. Similar will be the case of several other centrally sponsored schemes whose implementation has been cleared by Vohra.
(The writer is a veteran Journalist)
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