TANGDAR, May 30: For the first time in at least two decades, the government in Kashmir Wednesday held its cabinet meeting in Tangdhar, a remote area close to the Line of Control (Loc) that divides the state between India and Pakistan.
“Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, under the innovative initiative to take the government to the door steps of the people and to address their difficulties, chaired the State Cabinet meeting at Tangdar,” an official spokesman said.
This is perhaps for the first time that the government has held the meeting away from the seat of the government in the capital Srinagar. “It will take governance to the doorsteps of the poor and the forgotten sections”, the spokesman said.
Omar’s political rivals have dismissed the meeting as a publicity stunt.
At the meeting, the Chief Minister received the sector wise appraisal of development schemes under implementation in Tangdar and Teetwal blocks constituting Karnah Tehsil.
The Chief Minister also interacted with sarpanches and panches of Karnah, which has a population of 60,000 in more than 40 villages. “He apprised them of services transferred by government to these basic democratic units to empower them for undertaking various development works and formulating plans for the people in the areas they represent,” the spokesman said.
“He also told the village heads that a “powerful and delivering Panchayat Raj system is his government’s commitment and measures have already been initiated in the direction.”
