New Delhi: The civil service needs to be reshuffled, the budget calculations have to be realigned, and pretty much the entire legal and administrative framework governing governance in Jammu & Kashmir has to be overhauled.
Less than two weeks before the state is bifurcated on 31 October to form the union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, the authorities are racing against time to ensure the transition is smooth.
“From giving final touches to a separate budget to finalising the list of employees across departments that will be split between the two union territories and restructuring the legislative assembly, we are working round the clock,” a senior J&K-cadre IAS officer told ThePrint over the phone. “It’s a mammoth and challenging exercise.”
To understand how one of the biggest reorganisation exercises in recent times is being pulled off, ThePrint spoke to different officials who are in the know of the preparations underway. Here are the changes that are expected to kick in 1 November in five key areas — administration, policing and law & order, judiciary, education & health, and infrastructure & industry.
1) Administration
The bifurcation is taking place under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, which was placed in Parliament by the Modi government after it stripped the erstwhile state of its special status by scrapping Article 370.
Under the Act, the new union territory of Jammu & Kashmir will be modelled on the lines of Delhi and Puducherry, with its own chief minister and legislature who work alongside a lieutenant governor. As opposed to governors, lieutenant governors have certain executive powers. Ladakh, meanwhile, will have a model like that of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep, which are governed by a lieutenant governor.
After the bifurcation, the first — and the easier — administrative task will be the appointment of the two lieutenant governors.
Readying the administrative architecture will be the more complex chore, senior officials in the J&K government said.
For one, senior officials in the administration have been burning the midnight oil to bifurcate the budget.
“The two UTs will have a separate budget from 1 November. Putting in place a robust financial architecture will be key to ensuring the smooth functioning of the two UTs,” one of the J&K cadre officials said. “It’s a tricky and time-consuming process.”
The size of J&K’s budget for 2019-20, approved by Governor Satya Pal Malik in December last year, was Rs 88,911 crore.
Another senior official said another complicated exercise was “dividing resources that includes manpower and material (resources)”, which has begun.
A three-member committee set up by the Centre and headed by former defence secretary Sanjay Mitra is already working to divide the physical assets between the two UTs.
The committee, one of the aforementioned officers said, will decide how a fair division will take place across departments. “It will decide what happens to the banks, the bhawans that J&K state has in Delhi, other resources like cars etc,” the officer added.
Every department, the officer said, had begun calculating the number of posts that will be be in J&K and Ladakh, and the staff strength required. This will happen before 31 October, the officer added.
“There will be a whole lot of legislative and rule-based work that is to be done,” the officer said. “It has already begun in full swing and all departments are at it. Extensive data collection has been done and reports are being prepared. We hope for a smooth transition.”
Division of manpower is a task the administration is approaching cautiously. The J&K Reorganisation Act clearly specifies that officers of the All India Services, such as the IAS and the IPS, appointed to the J&K cadre will continue to serve as such. Future recruits, however, who are posted to Jammu, Kashmir or Ladakh will be from the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territory) cadre. In short, the separate J&K cadre will cease to exist.
As far as state service employees are concerned, they have been asked to clarify their preference for Ladakh or J&K, but the final call rests with the government.
According to one of the officers, a draft for new transaction-of-business rules was also being prepared.
The state legislative council or upper house will cease to exist under the reorganisation Act. The Jammu and Kashmir administration Wednesday ordered that consequent to the abolition of the state council, all the staff should report to the General Administration Department by 22 October.
The administration has also ordered that vehicles purchased for the legislative council are transferred to the director of State Motor Garages.
The premises, along with furniture and electronic gadgets, will be transferred to director, estates.
Also read: State govt employees can choose between Ladakh and J&K, but final call won’t be theirs
2) Policing and law & order
The state’s home department has asked senior police officers to furnish a detailed report on the assets they require post-bifurcation, and the number of personnel that can be spared for Ladakh.
Although home to a fraction of the state’s population — 3 lakh against the J&K’s 108 lakh — Ladakh accounts for the bulk of its land area. It remains cut off from the rest of the state for around five months on account of its tough winter.
A senior police officer said they had charted out the manpower available (categorised under different ranks) and devised a road map for how it can be divided between the two union territories. The details, the officer added, have been submitted to the J&K home department.
According to officials, the report factors in the population of a given area, the frequency and nature of crime, and the size of each police station’s jurisdiction.
“The number of personnel required for a particular police station depends on how much area falls under its jurisdiction, the nature of crimes in that area and the population of that area,” a senior police officer said. “So a list of requirements for each police station was charted out,” the officer added.
The officer said a separate exercise was underway to figure out which of the senior policemen will go to which of the two UTs.
“The police force is going through a massive rejig. Now, since it is not a state anymore, all the decisions on transfers and posting will be done from the Centre,” the officer added. “The allowances will be revised, the budget will be re-allocated.”
Another J&K police officer said the bifurcation and UT status has been welcomed by the force as their pay structures, along with the facilities provided, will now improve.
“It is good for us. We will now get to go to other UTs to serve (police personnel can be transferred between UTs), which is a much required change,” the officer added. “Moreover, the salaries will be better.”
3) Judiciary
There will be a common high court for the two UTs, but it is still being debated whether there will be two separate judicial cadres or a common one.
Currently, against a strength of 275, there are 225 judicial officers working in Jammu & Kashmir and just 10 in Ladakh.
“There is a thinking in the government that for 10 judicial officers, it’s not feasible to have a separate cadre. We are currently studying the status of other UTs like Puducherry and Lakshadweep to see what kind of structure they have,” said a judicial officer. “A final call on whether a common cadre can be structured under law is yet to be taken.”
The J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 states that, after bifurcation, 108 central laws will apply to the UTs while 164 state laws will be repealed. Only 166 state laws will continue to be applicable to the two UTs.
Another official from the administration, meanwhile, talked about the planned overhaul of some boards and societies.
“Like the women and child board, it will become redundant under the new law, and will have to be reconstituted,” the official said. “A lot of legal changes will have to be made.”
“Ladakh will have to be governed by regulations, which will have to be made by the Centre because, unlike J&K, it won’t have a legislative assembly,” the official added.
4) Education & health
A comprehensive education package is being finalised for the two UTs, officials privy to the preparations said.
“Under the package, a degree college is being proposed in each district of the two UTs. The plan is to ensure that the education provided leads to better employability of the individual,” a J&K-cadre IAS officer said.
A comprehensive list has been prepared of the number of schools, colleges and teachers in the erstwhile state. “The future roadmap for the two UTs is being prepared based on the data collected,” the officer added.
The departments of education and health are both said to be taking stock of their staff strength to decide how they will be split.
“We have asked all employees in the health department — doctors, nurses, hospital staff, ministerial staff — to state whether they want to be in Jammu & Kashmir or Ladakh. The process is on,” said Dr Shafqat Khan, officer on special duty in the J&K Health and Medical Education Department.
The division, Khan said, will be based on the infrastructure requirements of the two UTs. As of now there are three medical colleges operational in the state, while seven have been sanctioned. An 11th is due to be sanctioned shortly. Of the new ones, four are in Jammu division, three in Kashmir and one in Leh.
“Most of the new medical colleges will become functional from the next academic session. We will take some faculty and staff from the existing colleges while fresh appointments will be made for all the other posts,” Khan said.
The health department is also going through central laws that are not yet applicable in J&K but have to be adopted from 1 November, to understand how the situation is likely to change.
“Although most central laws related to health are already applicable (in the state), there are some like the Pharmacy Act, which regulates the profession and practice of pharmacy), and the Clinical Establishment Act (registration and regulations of all clinical establishments in India) that are not in place yet,” Khan said. “We are going through the rules and regulations before notifying them.”
Also read: The administrative changes that await J&K as it heads towards bifurcation
5) Infrastructure & industry
The Centre has already unveiled a slew of projects with an aim to boost local infrastructure. These include over half-a-dozen hydropower plants that are either in the works or at proposal stage. The Union Road Transport and Highways Ministry is building over 680 km of highways in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh at an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, including the Zojila tunnel project for all-year connectivity between Leh and Srinagar.
The government is also preparing the ground to attract industry to set up shop in Kashmir. However, an investors’ meet planned for October was postponed because of the turmoil on the ground after 5 August, when Article 370 was revoked.
Sheikh Ashiq, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said despite the Centre’s push, there is a lot of apprehension and confusion on the ground about how things will unfold.
“Already, 50 per cent of our exports are down this year because of the turmoil in the Valley. Many people working in small carpet industries, handloom units and tourism sector have lost their jobs,” Ashiq added. “The government has to address the sentiment of the people. For any industry to prosper, you need peace on the ground.”