Cabinet to discuss rationalisation of jobs reservations in next meeting: Omar

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced on Friday that the cabinet would address the issue of rationalising job reservations in its next meeting.

However, he did not provide details regarding the date of the meeting.

“A cabinet meeting will be held. We were constrained by the fact that I did not want anybody to sabotage this by going to the Election Commission because of the (model) code of conduct. Now that the code of conduct is over, the elections are over, the concerned minister will present the memo in the next cabinet meeting, and we will discuss it then,” Abdullah told reporters here at the end of the two-day working committee meeting of his party, the National Conference (NC), Omar, flanked by his father and party president Farooq Abdullah and other senior colleagues.

He noted that the meeting coincided with the completion of one year since the party formed the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

“It has been more than a year since the government formation. So, the party’s working committee, which is the highest decision-making body of the party, deliberated over the political situation. Feedback was taken from the MLAs and party leaders. Many recommendations have been made, and all those will be implemented,” he said.

He said the meeting reviewed the party’s performance in the Budgam and Nagrota bypolls, both of which the NC lost. “Whatever gaps are there will be plugged by the party in the coming days,” he added.

The chief minister was asked why the NC’s Lok Sabha MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi was missing from the crucial working committee meeting. “We would not like to have such people who do not adhere to the discipline of the party and prefer to convey their feelings through the media”.

Asked about the installation of electricity metres becoming an issue for the government, the chief minister said the government wants the people to have good quality electricity at lower prices.

“It is a fact that if you pay bills honestly, a metre will give you a lower monthly electricity bill than a fixed rate. This is an established fact for poor houses. For richer people, it might be different,” he said.

Asserting that the installation of electricity metres was a must for fulfilling the party’s election promise of providing 200 units of electricity free every month, Abdullah said, “It is the only way that I can measure 200 units”.

“I am constrained at being unable to fulfil this promise because the percentage of metering is still far below 50 per cent, which means the majority of the people of J-K will not fall within the purview of the (free) 200 units,” he added.

To another question about the cabinet expansion, the chief minister said the NC president will discuss the issue with him and “whatever his direction will be, we will do that”.