L-G heads Pahari, OBC Boards, Rehab Council Once sinecures of political heavyweights, 5 Boards, Corpns put under Advisor Khan

Reconstitution leaves scope for political nominations

JAMMU: Statutory in nature but once rehabilitation center for dissident legislators or poll losers, at least five ‘Boards’ have gone under the chair of just one Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor as the Union Territory administration Tuesday reconstituted nine bodies lying defunct since the end of political dispensation in 2019.
Lieutenant Governor Girish Chander Murmu has retained with himself the charge of politically engaging Pahari Welfare Board and the Other Backward Classes Board. As these bodies would be called under the political governments, at least five Boards –SC Board, Women Development Corporation, SC, ST Corporation, Social Welfare Board and Child Protection Society –have been put under the chair of Advisor Farooq Khan.
It may be interesting to mention here that among the three Advisors to the LG, Farooq Khan has slightly lesser influential and least number of departments under his charge. Though he has never sulked on this issue but putting many Corporations and Boards under him may have been one of the ways to empower the lone Advisor who has long been associated with the ruling BJP after having served in Police across the ‘state’.
Interestingly, on the eve of reconstitution of Boards and Corporations –the second most awaited affair under the political governments –the Murmu administration has left scope for some political accommodation. In most of the reconstituted bureaucratic-heavy Boards and Corporations, headed either by the LG himself or Advisor Khan, it has been said that “non-official members shall be nominated by the Chairman”. This leaves scope for adjustment of some political persons in near future.
Besides, the Pahari Board and the OBC Board, the Rehabilitation Council has also been put under the direct charge of the Lieutenant Governor as its chairman, and so has been the J&K Skill Development Mission. The governing council of the latter, is the only body which will be headed by any other Advisor than Khan—Advisor K K Sharma.
While Advisor Khan enjoys the chair in five of the nine bodies reconstituted today, he is also the vice-chairman in three of the four bodies the LG has kept for himself, and thus will enjoy larger control in all these bodies.
It is only the Jammu and Kashmir Skill Development Mission of which Advisor Khan is neither the chairman nor vice-chairman. He however is present on the mission as well as on the governing council as a member.
Besides reconstitution of these nine bodies, the government also constituted three new committees in the Housing & Urban Development Department and Information Department to grant and allot contracts for the departments.
While administrative secretaries of these departments will head the respective Contract committees, the Departmental Contract Committee of the Housing & Urban Development Department will work under the Development Commissioner, Public Works(R&B) department.