Dineshwar Sharma, the Centre’s Special Representative for Jammu & Kashmir cut short his week-long visit to the State on Wednesday, a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pulled out of its alliance with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), leading to imposition of Governor’s rule in the State.
A top government official told The Hindu that the current political crisis in the State will not have a bearing on Mr. Sharma’s functioning and he will continue in office.
Mr. Sharma, a former Intelligence Bureau Director was appointed on October 23, 2017 to “initiate and carry forward a dialogue with the elected representatives, various organisations and concerned individuals in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.” He holds the rank of Cabinet Secretary.
‘As before’
“The Governor’s rule doesn’t change anything — all other functions of the government will continue as before. It’s the same with the Special Representative, he will continue to do the job for which he was appointed,” a senior government official said.
In the past two days, Mr. Sharma met only a few people, including Waheed Parra, a PDP leader. This visit was considered to be significant in wake of the Centre’s decision on Sunday to not extend the “suspension of operations” or “cease-ops” in the State.
Hours after she resigned as the State Chief Minister, Ms. Mehbooba Mufti, while addressing a press conference in Srinagar, had said that a “muscular policy” will not work in J&K.
The official said that the J&K Governor N.N. Vohra would choose his advisors and the announcement would be made by his office. “The Governor will decide who and how many advisors he requires,” the official said.
On Wednesday, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved placing the services of B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, a senior IAS officer of the Chhattisgarh cadre, at the disposal of the J&K government.
Mr. Subrahmanyam, a 1987-batch IAS officer, is at present the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) in Chhattisgarh. He is likely to replace the present incumbent B.B. Vyas as the Chief Secretary of J&K.
Mr. Subrahmanyam has served as Private Secretary to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2004-2008.
He served in the PMO after NDA government came to power, and stayed there till March 2015 before moving to Chhattisgarh.
