All is not well in the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference.
Two days after Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah publicly announced that our coffers were empty, the ruling party on Thursday designed a poster and circulated it across various social media handles claiming the party has fulfilled another promise by hiking the honorarium of Special Police Officers (SPO) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
As the post went viral, questions were raised by several netizens including the opposition party leaders in the valley over the authenticity of the claim made in the post by the ruling party.
The post was made public at a time when Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was engaged in pivotal discussions with sector leaders to unlock Jammu & Kashmir’s untapped potential at the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) event in Mumbai.
In Kashmir, Peoples Conference Chairman and MLA Handwara, Sajad Lone was among those who also raised the flag asking Is it true? In a post on X Sajad Lone questioned, "Is it true? The salaries of SPOs are funded by MHA through Security Related Expenditure (SRE). Still, if the state government has created or invented a way to supplement their salaries -some clarification on that. Per se, it is the MHA domain".
Former Srinagar Mayor Junaid Azim Mattu also took the ruling party to task while asking, "On one hand we have the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference and Chief Minister constantly telling us that the Home Dept and Law & Order doesn’t come under the elected Government. On the other hand, they claim credit for the increased honorarium of SPOs of the Jammu and Kashmir police with a cutout of the CM’s picture"!
As the ruling party realized it had shot itself in the foot, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference swiftly launched a massive damage control exercise by immediately deleting all the posts from their social media handles. Even the accounts of the Chief Minister were used to publicize the post from his different handles.
In a clarification, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) stated that the post, which was shared from various handles linked to the party and the Chief Minister, was published without proper verification.
In an official statement, the NC said, "A recent post concerning SPOs’ honorarium was put out from various handles connected to the party & the Chief Minister. This post should not have been put out & was done without any attempt to verify or cross-check the information being put out.
While we have been strongly advocating for an increase in the honorarium & we are making every effort to see this done, it hasn’t happened till now.
The person responsible has been taken to task & has been divested of his responsibility as Social Media Advisor to VP JKNC.”
The party reaffirmed its commitment to securing better remuneration for SPOs while distancing itself from the inaccurate information circulated online.