SRINAGAR: Debate over the creation of new administrative units in the state ratcheted up further with a verbal spar between the ruling National Conference (NC) and opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the Cabinet Sub-Committee’s(CSC) meeting here Monday.
The PDP also sought a special session of the Legislative Assembly to discuss the Mushtaq Ganai-led Commission’s report on the issue , rejecting the CSC meetings as “nothing but an attempt to put up a facade for the NC’s designs to use the creation of new units for political purposes.”
“This would not be an administrative decision but a political one where a particular political party will benefit. It is beyond our comprehension how the government expects people to give their suggestions without even making the Ganai report public,” senior PDP leader and former Finance Minister of the state, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh told reporters here.
“So we want an extra-ordinary discussion over the report in the Assembly even if that means a separate or special session ,” he said.
“The report should be made public instead of government holding hurriedly- convened cosmetic meetings. If the government can spend lakhs of rupees on advertisements why can’t it publish the report in newspapers so that people can put forth their suggestions,” Beigh , flanked by party president Mehbooba Mufti, said at press conference.
Beigh said not only PDP but even NC and Congress leaders were being kept in dark over the issue..
Speaking on the occasion, Mehbooba said the government would be asking for trouble if it created new administrative units in a “secretive, selective and hush -up manner.”
Earlier in the day, heated scenes were witnessed at the CSC meet at Banquet Hall here as PDP leader and MLC Muhammad Ashraf Mir sought another administrative unit for Srinagar but was “interrupted” by NC leader Nasir Aslam Wani .
Mir told a local news agency that he left the meeting after Nasir told him that he had no mandate to speak on the issue and should leave the meeting.
When contacted, Wani said that he spoke after permission from CSC chairman and that the PDP leader had tried to “create ruckus” at the meeting for lack of an agenda.

Reader correspondent