Brief Assembly session in September
*Land allotted for various significant ventures
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 4: A brief Legislative Assembly session will be held in Srinagar in third week of September while the Cabinet today cleared almost entire administrative and other agenda before it including tourism and development related projects but has sought more details on Mantalai-based assets which are proposed to be outsourced before taking a final decision.
The Cabinet met in Srinagar Civil Secretariat for about one and a half hours from 4 PM under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to take up the agenda submitted by different Government departments. Promotion of a total of 29 JKAS officers has been cleared and the orders would be subsequently issued by the General Administration Department after nod to the Cabinet decisions is received from Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
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No official statement was issued after the Cabinet meeting.
“The Chief Minister today chaired a meeting of the Council of Ministers at Civil Secretariat Srinagar, in which several important decisions concerning development and public welfare were taken,” office of CM J&K wrote on X without elaborating.
Sources, however, told the Excelsior that the Legislative Assembly session, which will be a brief one, is proposed to be held in Srinagar in third week of September. With this, 40-day deadline proposed by the Assembly Secretariat between issuance of notification and beginning of the Session is likely to be met.
The Assembly Secretariat has already informed the Government that the Session has to be called before October 4 as budget session of the Legislature had concluded on April 4 in Jammu. The Assembly must meet within six months.
“The Assembly session will be brief one lasting around 10 days with 7-8 sittings,” the sources said.
They added that the Cabinet has sought some more details on the assets raised at Mantalai in Udhampur district which were proposed to be outsourced as per an agenda item of the Tourism Department. However, the outsourcing decision is final and will be sent for the Lieutenant Governor’s approval after the requisite details are made available by the concerned department.
A proposal mooted by the Government and placed before the Cabinet pertained to outsourcing of operations and maintenance of the Yoga and Wellness Centre and Aparna Ashram at Mantalai in Udhampur district through PPP mode for a concession period of 20 years including one year development period, which may be further extended by 10 years based upon mutual agreement and satisfactory performance of the Concessionaire as per the conditions specific in the Concession Agreement.
However, the establishment of IT/Innovation Park in Jammu and Kashmir, which will be developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), was cleared by the Cabinet.
The outsourcing of Hotel Ashok at tourist resort of Gulmarg in Kashmir also got the Cabinet nod.
It will be outsourced though the PPP model for a period of 40 years including a five-year construction period.
The Cabinet cleared several proposals for allotment of land for different projects which will come up in Jammu and Kashmir.
Four kanals land will be allotted to the Tourism Department for construction of Cafeteria with allied work at Hiranagar in Kathua district while the Industries and Commerce Department will get four kanals and 11 marlas land for establishment of a Craft village in Sonpah in Budgam district. The School Education Department will get seven kanals and 5 marlas land for establishment of an Army Goodwill School at village Behibagh in Kulgam district.
All these proposals for allotment of land were placed before the Cabinet which gave its nod to all of them, the sources said.
The Cabinet has cleared promotion of 29 JKAS officers. While Jatinder Mishra was cleared for promotion to the Selection Grade of JKAS and will get Selection Grade (Non-Functional), Pawan Singh Rathore got Super Time Scale (Level 14) notionally w.e.f 26.9.2025 and on regular basis notionally.
The Cabinet cleared nine JKAS officers for Special Scale including Dr Sunil Sharma, Zahoor Ahmad Magray, Syed Sajad Qadri, Masarat Hashim, Sonali Arun Gupta, Atul Gupta, Ritu Mahajan, Mohammad Anwar Banday and Dr Mohammad Tanvir; all prospectively while 18 others got Selection Grade of JKAS.
They are Akhil Sadotra, Rachna Sharma, Vikas Sharma, Shafqat Majeed Bhat, Suheel Ahmad Lone, Musharraf Ali Haf, Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, Reyaz Ahmad Shah, Muzaffar Ahmad Sheikh, Tariq Ahmad Reshi, Shoaib Noor, Shakoor Ahmad Dar, Mumtaz Ahmad Pir, Piyush Dhotra, Masood Ahmad Wani, Deepak Kumar, Javid Ahmad Rather and Mohd Jhangir.
