Rajya Sabha passes Bill to merge J&K, AGMUT cadres

Union Minister of State G Kishan Reddy said with violence in Jammu & Kashmir having gone down, the UT was poised for development because of the large number of Central Government projects.

Giving statistics, he said the number of infiltration attempts had fallen to just 99 in 2020 as against 216 in 2019, terrorist violence had fallen from 594 in 2019 to 244 in 2020, while stone-throwing incidents had sharply declined to just 327 last year from over 2,000 in 2019.

Reddy was piloting the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha which was later passed by voice vote. The Bill will replace an ordinance to merge the J&K cadre of all India services (such as IAS, IPS, Indian Forest Service, etc) with the Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.

Replying to the debate that also marked the Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad’s last speech as a Rajya Sabha member, Reddy said the legislation would correct the huge deficiency of officers of the All India Services in the UT of J&K. Developmental schemes, Centrally sponsored schemes and other allied activities had suffered due to the non-availability of adequate number of all India officers in the existing cadres of J&K, he argued.

By merging the J&K cadre with the AGMUT cadre, officers working in other UTs would be able to bring their experience and freshness of vision to J&K, Reddy argued while implicitly dismissing Azad’s suggestion to make recruitments from J&K.

Earlier, opening the discussion, Azad sought restoration of statehood to J&K by the next Budget so that bureaucracy need not perform the job of legislators who are better at formulating well-rounded legislation.

Azad said the government’s declarations of major job opportunities, industrialisation and Indians purchasing land had come to naught. Rather than adding to the industries, 60 per cent of enterprises in Jammu had closed down. In Kashmir, industrialisation was difficult due to the absence of all-weather communication links. Land was difficult to purchase because most of it was forests and mountains due to which one acre of land in Srinagar and Jammu cost Rs 40-50 crore. Azad also spoke on the water and health woes of people.

Pak targets forward posts in Kathua

• Pakistani Rangers opened fire on forward posts and villages along the international border in Kathua district, officials said on Monday.
• The firing from across the border in the Karol Krishna border outpost area started around 10:20 pm on Sunday, prompting strong retaliation by the Border Security Force (BSF), the officials said. PTI

Courtesy: Daily Tribune : 8th February 2021