CM Omar calls on Home Minister Amit Shah

New Delhi, Jan 19: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called on Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Monday and the two leaders discussed various issues related to Jammu and Kashmir.

No details of the meeting were available.

The meeting comes amid growing tensions between the elected government of J&K and the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration.

The Transaction of Business Rules (TBR) are also yet to be settled between the elected government and the LG’s administration.

“Chief Minister today met Union Home Minister @AmitShah in New Delhi to discuss various matters concerning Jammu and Kashmir,” CM’s Office said in a post on microblogging site X. The meeting also comes in the backdrop of reports of Kashmiri shawl sellers being roughed up in various parts of the country.

The budget session of the J&K Assembly is scheduled to begin in February and the Union Home Ministry is the nodal ministry for the allocation of funds for the union territories. In the past, CM Omar has said that while the central government has been “well disposed” in terms of funding and extending capital expenditure schemes, the relationship with the LG’s Office has been antagonistic.

CM Omar has publicly alleged that the LG appointed an IAS officer to a post reserved for JK Administrative Services (JKAS) to deny the elected government control over the Information Department.

He has been vocal about the “disempowerment” of the office of the J&K Chief Minister, saying that he has had the “unique misfortune” of transitioning from leading one of the country’s most empowered states to a union territory with “far less power than any other state CM”.

In his past interactions with the media, CM Omar has listed what he termed as administrative “strangulation” by the LG’s Office, alleging interference in departments that have nothing to do with security or law and order.