Jammu, Feb 7: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday said the government has no intention of creating new administrative units at present and is focused on operationalising those already sanctioned.
Omar 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 CM 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 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 subdivisions, 50 tehsils and 99 niabats were sanctioned on October 21, 2014, under which Lohai and Duggan were also created as tehsils.
The CM said the order was later kept in abeyance in 2018, except for 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.
The government also said there is no proposal under consideration to relax the norms related to change of land use (CLU) in the Union Territory.
The information was provided by minister Javed Ahmed Rana in the Assembly in reply to a question raised by MLA Surjit Singh Salathia. The minister was replying on behalf of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
“The government does not intend to grant any relaxation in CLU norms at present,” he said.
He also clarified that there is no proposal to exempt rural areas from the existing CLU provisions.
The minister further said the government is not considering any proposal to reduce the prescribed fees or ease formalities related to CLU.