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| Unimpressive 6-month record of ruling coalition | | | When Omar Abdullah took over as Chief Minister in January last people expected major deviation from the obsolete style of functioning of the state administration.People had hopes that the 39-year old head of the Government will be able to infuse greater work culture among the employees and officers than one had experienced in the past.People had expectations of speedy execution of development works in the state.Six months have passed and one is yet to experience what one would call a major change.There is no change in the work culture.The number of development works stand reduced and the work on some of the small projects moves at a smail's pace.Various factors seem to have delayed better days under Omar;'s dispensation.First factor was the Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections which left the hands of Omar Abdullah bound by the code of conduct for nearly five months.He could take no major decision nor sanction any major people-friendly project.With the start of the election process began the era of unrest in Kashmir.It was unrest against the poll process.Later the valley was torn by the Shopian incident in which two women were allegedly raped and murdered.During the last 22 days it is total shutdown in Shopian and elsewhere protest rallies have kept the Government engaged in tackling the law and order in the valley.After the elections one had expected Omar to galvanise all the resources for giving new dimensions to the development activities.Since the budget proposals had not been adopted by the state legislature the district development board meetings were not held.It delayed formulation of the district plans.Proper allocation of funds in other sectors was delayed and hence nothing tangible could be achieved.The Government;'s commitment on reducing the level of regional discrimination,resolving the problem of unemployment and finalising schemes for improving power generation and drinking water supply remained unfulfilled.One would have not expected all the promises to be fulfilled within a span of five months but at least a beginning should have been made.There is a sort of confusion in the ruling alliance which is the result of inner conflict between the Congress and the National Conference.The bureaucracy,after the induction of Ghulam Nabi Azad in the union cabinet,in Jammu and Kashmir is faced with a dilemma.It feels sandwiched between Omar Abdullah and Azad as the latter has been spending more time in the state than in Delhi issuing one direction or the other.What seems to have added to the confusion in the bureaucracy is the way Dr Farooq Abdullah,union Minister for renewable energy,has become another power centre.Time has come when Omar Abdullah needs to assert his authority so that no other political leader is able to build a parallel Government.Already Omar has to function within the constraints of coalition Dharma and if there are more than one seat of power it would make things difficult for Omar and his ruling coalition.
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