No plan to create new administrative units: Omar

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said that the Government has no intention of creating new administrative units at present and is focused on operationalising those already sanctioned.

Abdullah was replying to supplementary questions by members in the Assembly seeking new administrative units in Jammu and Kashmir.

“This issue should end here. The Government, as of now, has no intention to open new administrative units,” he told the House.

The chief minister said the units already created have not been properly operationalised. “It is our responsibility to operationalise them, to make them function properly and to put systems in place wherever gaps need to be filled,” he said.

He further said MLAs have complained that units set up in their constituencies have not been operationalised. “The units that were opened have not been operationalised. Our first responsibility is to make them functional,” he said.

“After making them functional, we will take necessary steps wherever new administrative units need to be established,” he added.

Replying to a question by MLA Dr Rameshwar Singh in the Assembly, the chief minister said the matter is being taken seriously, and new administrative units will not be created arbitrarily.

He said nine new sub-divisions, 50 tehsils and 99 niabats were sanctioned on October 21, 2014, under which Lohai and Duggan were also created as tehsils.

The chief minister said the order was later kept in abeyance in 2018, except for the tehsils created at Vilgam and Qalamabad in the Kupwara district, Singhpora and Narwav in the Baramulla district, Bhella in the Doda district and Ramsu in the Ramban district, which remained in force.