IAS officer Arun Kumar Mehta was appointed as the J&K chief secretary, last week. However, the outgoing chief secretary B V R Subrahmanyam is yet to vacate his office.
At the moment, Jammu and Kashmir is facing a bizarre situation of having two chief secretaries as the outgoing chief secretary B V R Subrahmanyam has not left the Union Territory even after four days of his transfer to the commerce secretary in Delhi.
And while Subrahmanyam continues to work from the J&K chief secretary’s office, the newly appointed official Arun Kumar Mehta is functioning from the UT’s financial commissioner’s office, the office he was previously holding.
And Subrahmanyam’s decision to continue working in J&K as well as retaining the chief secretary’s car and attending meetings chaired by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has fuelled numerous speculations.
Some officials say that Subrahmanyam is a staunch believer in astrology and is “waiting for the right time” to leave the UT. “I don’t think there is anything more to it. He might leave on June 7 or June 8,” an official said.
On May 31, Sinha chaired a high-level meeting with administrative secretaries at the civil secretariat in Srinagar. According to a government spokesman, during the meeting, Sinha appreciated Subrahmanyam’s work and his contribution towards the development of J&K.
“Mr. Subrahmanyam has a high administrative acumen and he has raised the bar of administration with his dedication, honesty, and commitment,” he said. Subrahmanyam, who was also present in the meeting, thanked Sinha and other officers saying it was an honour to work with such a team of “brilliant officers”.
Earlier, on May 29, when Sinha inaugurated the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) 500-bedded Covid Hospital and dedicated the facility to Jammu, Subrahmanyam accompanied him while Mehta was not present.
The government has already issued an order that all the functions of the Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary would now be disposed of by Mehta.
The government on May 28 appointed financial commissioner Mehta, a 1988-batch IAS officer, as the new chief secretary after B V R Subrahmanyam was appointed as an officer on special duty in the Union Ministry of Commerce.
Responding to the developments, NC leader Omar Abdullah tweeted, “Two chief secretaries in J&K, an administration split between loyalists of the outgoing CS and others who want to get on with their work but can’t figure out what’s going on. So much for good governance & accountability.”
After the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019, which saw a communication blockade and the arrest of thousands of people including three former chief ministers, Subrahmanyam was seen as the most powerful person in Jammu and Kashmir.
After the abrogation, Subrahmanyam had said, “Jammu and Kashmir was a broken state and there was no system in place due to years of mis-governance, corruption and unbelievable levels of fraud committed by leaders of mainstream parties and separatist organisations. There, not a single soul cried over the detention of political and separatist leaders in August last year.”