Srinagar:| Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said the BJP has no locus standi to question the duration of the upcoming Assembly session, as the states ruled by the saffron party are known to have even shorter sessions.
Abdullah was reacting to BJP MLA and Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma’s accusation that the government kept the forthcoming Assembly session short as it was not serious about addressing people’s issues.
“It is a seven-day session. What is non-serious about that? It would have been non-serious had we followed the path shown by the BJP, which convenes one or two-day sessions in states ruled by it. These are people who do not even appear before Parliament; you barely see them in Parliament,” Abdullah told reporters here.
The Autumn Session of the J&K Assembly is scheduled to be held in Srinagar from September 21 to September 30.
The schedule includes three non-sitting days – September 23 for Maharaja Hari Singh’s birthday, September 26 as an off day, and September 27 as Sunday – effectively making it a seven-day session.
“As for non-serious behaviour, we sit in the Assembly from morning until evening. Not a day goes by when we aren’t present in the Assembly. Let others make whatever allegations they want, but the BJP has no standing to level such accusations. The states ruled by it have even shorter Assembly sessions.
“Let them look at Parliament and see who sits there for how long and then come and tell me who takes things seriously and who does not,” the chief minister said.
He also said the BJP leaders put out statements everyday, but he has no intention to respond to them on a daily basis.
“They issue statements daily. You shouldn’t expect an answer from me on every single statement. You mentioned it today, fine; I will react to their next statement after a month. I will respond to one statement a month, not daily,” he said.
To a question on political stability in J&K, the chief minister asserted that he does not count his MLAs everyday and is not worried about them slipping away as he has faith in them.
“Am I worried that some of my MLAs might slip away? Not in the least. I have full faith in my people,” Abdullah said.
Referring to the people behind such talks, Abdullah said, “As for those stirring this up, I know exactly who is behind it. It is just one or two individuals who collect their envelopes from agency offices on Gupkar Road.
“These are the same individuals who came to my office in Jammu the moment the government was formed, asking to be adjusted somewhere. I did not open my mouth out of respect for them. Just check the visitor records of who visits my office, and you will find the names of the very people busy counting MLAs today,” Abdullah said.
He added that just because such persons were not provided a job by his administration, “they have started writing against us”.
“Or take the commentator who didn’t receive government accommodation and now uses social media against the government. Had I given him a flat in Jawahar Nagar, would he dare write like this? This is sheer self-interest, and self-interest does not rattle me,” he said.
On recruitment, the chief minister said that vacancies are being filled gradually.
“We could rush the process, but we have often seen that haste does not yield good outcomes. Somewhere down the line, the room for grievances remains. That is why I have instructed the recruiting agencies that even if it takes an extra month or two, transparency must be maintained, and proper procedures must be followed so that tomorrow no one has complaints about the process,” Abdullah said.
The process is actively underway, and recruitment is taking place wherever needed across departments, he added.
