Srinagar, July 17: The Jammu and Kashmir government is not coming clear as to whether senior administration, police and army officials have been asked to directly report to the Union Home Minister, as reported in a section of national media.
“These are baseless and concocted reports. There is no communication to the state government that the officers should directly report to the Home Minister. How is it possible,” said the Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Ali Muhammad Sagar.
Jammu and Kashmir, Sagar said, has an elected government. “There is an elected government in the state which even Pakistan has acknowledged recently. So there is no question of anybody’s interference in the administrative affairs of the state. But in normal course, the Home Minister can seek report about the situation in the state. Beyond that, the state and centre governments know their jurisdiction,” he told Greater Kashmir.
On Friday, Bangalore-based daily, The Deccan Herald, reported that the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram “has been advised by the Prime Minister to shoulder more responsibility with Omar Abdullah following volatile situation in the Valley.”
“The Centre has told state Governor N N Vohra, the chief secretary and core commanders, Director General of Military Operations Lt Gen A M Verma and state Police Chief Kuldeep Khoda to be regularly in touch with Chidambaram,” the newspaper said.
“I can neither confirm it nor deny because I don’t know anything about such a move,” said the senior Congress minister, Taj Mohi-ud-Din.
“I don’t think there is anything like this,” said the senior NC leader and Member Parliament, Dr Mehboob Beg.
“We don’t know anything about it,” said a senior bureaucrat, privy to political developments in the state. “At least I can say with authority that the Chief Minister’s secretariat is unaware of any such development.”
While the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, Chief Secretary, SS Kapur, and Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khuda didn’t respond to repeated calls from Greater Kashmir, sources said the development has shaken the political circles in Jammu and Kashmir, who privately condemn New Delhi’s “direct interference” in the administrative affairs of the state.
“Earlier the Governor, NN Vohra, had reportedly asked the administrative secretaries to report to him about the developments in the state. Now the senior officials have been asked to directly report to New Delhi. One fails to understand what this is happening?” said a cabinet minister, wishing anonymity. “It should not happen because such moves undermine the authority of the Head of the state and his ministers, who have been elected by the people.”
According to The Deccan Herald, “the Home Minister is understood to have initially expressed his reluctance, it is learnt that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and the Congress leadership convinced him. Chidambaram’s reluctance stemmed out from the fact that it was wrong to stick his neck out when J&K has an elected government and the Centre was in any case giving help.”

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