PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti was sworn in as the 13th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
On Agenda: Mehbooba asks her ministers to focus on corruption-free governance
Mehbooba Mufti, 56, made history on Monday as she took oath as the first woman Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir at the Raj Bhavan here.
Besides Mehbooba, 22 other ministers were sworn-in by Governor N N Vohra, bringing to an end the three-month President’s Rule in the state.
BJP’s Dr Nirmal Singh, who was Deputy CM in late Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s government, will continue in that position. His party increased its strength with eight Cabinet-rank ministers, two more over its share in the Mufti government.
PDP MP Tariq Hamid Karra and Opposition Congress boycotted the ceremony.
Among those present were rival National Conference patron and former Union minister Farooq Abdullah, his son and former CM Omar Abdullah, Union Urban Development and Parliamentary Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur and Union Minister of State in PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh. BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav and vice-president Avinash Rai Khanna were also present at the swearing-in function, kept a low-key affair reportedly at the instance of Mehbooba.
Mehbooba’s ministry has 12 PDP ministers — nine of Cabinet rank, including the CM, and three Ministers of State (MoS), two less than its strength in Mufti’s Cabinet. The BJP has maintained its ministerial strength: besides the eight Cabinet ministers, the party has three MoS.
PDP ministers dropped this time include Altaf Bukhari, Javed Musatafa Mir, both of whom had Cabinet rank in Mufti’s administration, besides MoS Abdul Majid Paddar and Ashraf Mir. In their place, Mehbooba has inducted new faces as MoS ? Syed Farooq Andrabi, the MLA from Dooru and her uncle; and Zahoor Ahmed Mir.
The new faces from the BJP are Sham Choudhary, who has replaced former Cabinet minister Sukhnandan Choudhary, and Ajay Nanda in place of former MoS Pawan Gupta Mehbooba, a Lok Sabha MP from Anantnag, will now have to become a member of either the Assembly or the Legislative Council within six months. Sources said she is likely to contest the by-election from Anantnag Assembly constituency, which has fallen vacant with Mufti Sayeed’s death on January 7. By-election for both Anantnag Assembly and Lok Sabha seats are likely to be held together.
Post oath ceremony Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti in her first meeting with the Council of Ministers after taking oath asked them to get down to work immediately.
The Chief Minister said in the meeting that the PDP-BJP coalition government would work with the fresh resolve to accomplish Mufti Saheb’s unfinished agenda of peace, harmony and development for Jammu and Kashmir.
“The greatest tribute to Mufti Saheb will be if all of us work with sincerity, seriousness and honesty and reach out to the people and provide them the much-needed relief,” she said.
She said the broader roadmap for the PDP-BJP coalition government had already been spelled out in the “Agenda of Alliance”.
Asking her colleagues to get down to work immediately, Mehbooba said the urgent task before the government was to focus on development, good governance and corruption-free administration. She said the governance reforms initiated by the PDP-BJP government headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, which included ensuring transparency in recruitments and transfers, would be carried forward with fresh momentum.
Mehbooba said people had a lot of expectations from the present government and it was the responsibility of the ministers, including the Chief Minister, and other government functionaries to come up to their expectations. “The people are very vigilant today and keep it in mind that if you fail to perform, they will teach you a lesson in the next elections,” she told her Cabinet colleagues.
The Chief Minister said the ministers shouldn’t confine themselves to their constituencies or a particular region, but reach out to people in every nook and corner of the state to mitigate their sufferings. “We should work as a cohesive force to ensure intra and inter-regional harmony,” she said.
She also placed on record the commendable contribution of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to the national and the state politics spanning over six decades.
Terming the late Mufti Sayeed a distinguished leader and a stalwart, the Council of Ministers hailed his efforts to bring all regions of the state together and put them on the path of equitable development. The Council also reaffirmed Mufti Sayeed’s vision to make Jammu and Kashmir an abode of peace and harmony.
“The vision put together by Mufti Saheb will be a roadmap for us and we will carry forward that mission with renewed vigour, zeal and enthusiasm, which will be the biggest tribute to the great leader,” the Council of Ministers observed.
