Centre to announce rules defining J&K CM, cabinet’s powers

The Centre is expected to announce business rules for Jammu and Kashmir wherein powers of the chief minister (CM), his council of ministers will be defined clearly.
As the elected government led by Omar Abdullah took over reins of power in October, the day-to-day functioning of the public government has been hampered in the absence of business rules — especially the role and powers of the CM and his cabinet.
The Abdullah government currently has five ministers and three more ministers could be included.
The UT got an elected government after six years. After abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of the state into two UTs in August 2019 and the new reorganisation bill about the governance by the Centre, the role of elected CM and his cabinet was not made clear. So the Union ministry of home affairs has decided to announce the new business rules.
Those privy to the details said the rules have already been finalised and could be made public any time. The announcement of business rules have become mandatory as Jammu and Kashmir is currently the UT and for the past six years — first a governor and then lieutenant governor (L-G) — was running all the affairs of the governance.
The fresh business rules were drafted after taking all parties on board which sources said could smoothly run the governance in the UT. The rules have been formulated by the general administration department of the government.
In the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019, the L-G has powers over the home department and All India Services (AIS), in the new business rules other rules will be clarified. However, there wasn’t any mention of the powers of the CM and his cabinet.
For more than a month the Abdullah-led government has been running the affairs of the governance but many legislators and ministers have been saying that they do not know their powers and jurisdiction as they have worked in the state model earlier instead of a UT model.
The CM and his council of ministers had in their first cabinet meeting held last month passed a resolution on restoration of statehood and had also conveyed to centre to clarify the business rules so they could work under their own domain.
“We are unable to do anything as nothing has been cleared yet about powers of L-G and the CM. Currently it looks like Jammu and Kashmir has two power centres which is in no way good for any model of governance,” said a senior National Conference (NC) legislator. “We are hopeful not only will the business rules be clarified but we want restoration of the statehood,” he added.
Congress’ local unit president Tariq Hameed Karra, meanwhile, had on Monday said the Center does not want to give powers back to the public government in Jammu and Kashmir, adding, “The Prime Minister, home minister had been publicly saying restoration of statehood, but time has come the statehood should be restored otherwise for us it’s going to be another Jumla of the BJP government.”
He had said that the Congress will fight if full powers are not restored.
Notably, the NC and Congress contested assembly elections jointly, however Congress did not join the government.
The new business rules will remain in force till the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood. Meanwhile, sources said Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather could formulate the business rules for the assembly.