Tasavur Mushtaq
Jammu
Creating a situation perhaps for the first time after taking over as Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti on Friday left the cabinet meeting in anger as BJP opposed her idea of cadre allocation in Kashmir Police Services (KPS).
Informed sources told Kashmir Life that when the issue of cadre allocation of KPS was taken up, BJP, all of a sudden started ferociously reacting to the idea. The proposal, if approved, would permit KPS to reach the level of a DIG without being inducted into the IPS. The system in vogue, permits KPS officers to reach the level of SSP while being out of IPS.
BJP opposed the idea. When pressed, they said the government should take central government into the loop. This angered Chief Minister.
“You are compromising the integrity of the cabinet,” Chief Minister reacted. “Cabinet is supreme but if you have reservations, discuss it.”
When BJP insisted with the opposition, Chief Minister left the cabinet and drove home.
Sources said that the KPS cadre issue was to be tackled at part with what has already been done with the KAS. A sub-committee had earlier been set that tackled the issue. A similar situation could have salvaged the issue.
“The problem is that nobody had read the agenda,” one informed source said. “They saw the headline and flashed Delhi to trigger panic.”
Soon after Mehbooba left the cabinet, Deptuy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh went to see her at her residence at Wazarat road to cool tempers. He was accompanied by Finance Minister Dr Haseeb A Drabu.
Later, they were joined by other ministers including Chaudhary Lal Singh, Abdul Haq Khan, and Abdul Rehman Veeri.
It was not immediately known what happened in the informal meeting. However, sources said a KAS-like approach may follow.
It is interesting to mention here that the KPS officers had taken a delegation to both PDP and BJP requesting them that the issue was merely career related.
Interestingly 75 per cent of the KPS cadre belongs to Jammu and only one fourth is from Kashmir
