A top-level meeting involving Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam was convened in Delhi on Thursday. It was reported that the meeting’s main agenda was to discuss the modalities of Jammu and Kashmir administration.
This is third such meeting in the series of strategic discussions over the final framework for the administrative feasibility of J&K division. The key issues discussed in the meeting included the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act.
Previously on Wednesday, BVR Subrahmanyam, J&K principal secretary Rohit Kansal and additional secretary (Jammu and Kashmir division), Ganesh Kumar also held a two-hour-long meeting on similar lines.
Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh division will come into its existence on 31 October as per the official notification. The notification came out in accordance with the Centre’s decision to repeal Article 370. It is also expected that the delimitation exercise will begin after 31 October.
Earlier, the Union government has also constituted a committee of three members to distribute the assets and liabilities of Jammu and Kashmir between the newly-formed Union territories.
Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra has been made the chairman of the committee. Retired Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer Giriraj Prasad Gupta and retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Arun Goyal are the other members of the committee.
The proposed committee has been formed in accordance to the Section 84 and Section 85 of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. It will plan out the administrative plan work of the division of the erstwhile state.
According to the sources, Jammu and Kashmir will be a Union territory with 107 assembly seats while Ladakh will be having UT without any legislative assembly. The UTs will come into their proposed form on October 31.