Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference acting president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday praised Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi for inviting Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif for his May 26 swearing-in at Delhi, but not without a tinge of sarcasm.
"Excellent move by @narendramodi to invite SAARC leaders, especially Pak PM for his swearing in. Hope this is beginning of sustained talks", Mr. Abdullah said on Twitter after attending his first Cabinet meeting after the National Conference-Congress coalition's total rout in the Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir, in Srinagar on Wednesday.
"At the same time I can't help wonder what BJP would have said if as Prime Minister-designate, Rahul Gandhi had done the same thing", Mr. Abdullah tweeted.
Earlier, Mr. Abdullah’s cabinet scrapped the controversial stipendiary mode of recruitment which the coalition government had introduced in 2010. Unlike the gazetted appointees in the Government services, the non-gazetted recruits were entitled to only one-fourth or one-third of their monthly salaries for the first five years of service under the 2010 policy scripted by the high profile Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, then Secretary Finance Sudhanshu Pandey and the Government’s Economic Advisor Jaleel Ahmad Khan.
Rajindra appointed J&K DGP
The Cabinet also relieved Ashok Parasad as Director General of Police who has been repatriated to Intelligence Bureau where the Union Government has already appointed him as Special Director. The 1984 batch IPS officer of J&K cadre, K. Rajindra Kumar, was appointed as the new DGP.
