Cabinet to meet today

JAMMU : The cabinet meeting of state government- fourth of the current year, will be held on Tuesday morning. The meeting which will be chaired by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will commence at around 11 am.

Credible sources informed The News Now that the ongoing Nowshera agitation for creating the post of Additional District will top the agenda of the meeting.

“The council of minister will deliberate upon where to post the ADC- in Nowshera or Sunderbani, as the agitation in the town is far from over,” they said.

The government had appointed on March 9 Additional secretary, labour and employment department, Sachin Dev Singh as Additional Deputy Commissioner, on rotational basis for Nowshera-Sunderabani, though it failed to pacify the agitators which have been protesting pressing for permanent ADC posts since February 16.

Along with it, a reshuffle in the administration at the top level is not ruled out, especially in the light of the fact that around dozen government departments have been functioning with the top positions lying vacant, and are likely to be benefited from this reshuffle.

As things stand today, at-least eleven headless government departments have been functioning on ad-hoc basis- the ghost of ‘additional charge’ further burdening the officers, while a couple of them are completely headless.

It may also be mentioned that the meeting in question was earlier scheduled for March 13, but was re-scheduled for this Tuesday, March 20, following the removing of Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu from the council of ministers.