JAMMU, Nov 20: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, all Ministers and Administrative Secretaries will be visiting the border district of Poonch tomorrow for high-level review of development works, meeting around 10 delegations and virtual inauguration of various projects/schemes while the Cabinet will meet here at the Civil Secretariat at 10 am on Friday to take up host of issues.
Officials told the Excelsior that Omar and all five Ministers including Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, Sakina Itoo, Javaid Beg, Javed Rana and Satish Sharma will be reaching Poonch tomorrow morning for reviewing ongoing development works and announce some more projects for the border district.
Additional Chief Secretaries and the Administrative Secretaries of different departments, Heads of Departments (HoDs) and other senior officers will also attend the meeting.
Poonch is the second district in the Union Territory where such a meeting with entire Cabinet and Administrative Secretaries is being held, the officials said, adding similar meetings are also proposed in other districts later.
First such meeting in the series was held at Ganderbal on November 9.
The District Development Council (DDC) Chairperson and Members are also expected to attend the meeting
“Various projects and development works will come up for review during the high-level meeting. Some new projects are also expected to be announced. The Chief Minister will virtually inaugurate various projects/schemes in Poonch,” the officials said.
Omar and Ministers are also expected to meet around 10 delegations from different parts of Poonch district before returning to jammu in the afternoon, they added.
The district administration has made arrangements for the high-profile visits and give detailed briefing about the projects completed, under execution and in the pipeline.
Earlier, till the District Development Councils (DDCs) came into existence as third-tier of the Panchayati Raj System, there used to be District Development Boards (DDBs) headed by the Chief Minister and Cabinet Ministers. However, the DDBs were replaced by the DDCs in January 2021.
BJP heads six DDCs in the Jammu region including Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Udhampur, Doda and Reasi districts while National Conference is in the power in three DDCs—Rajouri, Ramban and Kishtwar districts. An Independent woman Member heads the Poonch DDC.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet is also scheduled to meet here on Friday at 10 am.
Officials said various development projects and other issues will figure in the Cabinet meeting to be chaired by the Chief Minister.
This will be second Cabinet meeting of the Omar Abdullah Government and the first in Jammu.
First meeting of the Cabinet was held in Srinagar in which a Resolution for restoration of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir was adopted. Later, the Chief Minister submitted the Resolution to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
There are three vacancies in the Cabinet.
Jammu and Kashmir can have a maximum of nine Ministers including the Chief Minister and presently there are six.
Budget meetings from Nov 27
The UT Government’s pre-budget meetings with different departments will begin from November 27 to firm up budgetary proposals for 2025-26 and finalise revised estimates for 2024-25.During the pre-budget meetings, the Government will hold consultations with 36 Administrative departments before concluding the exercise on December 20, read the schedule released by the Finance Department.
Ahead of the meetings, the Finance Department has directed departments to submit the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) on budget announcements, if any, besides the complete details of establishment budget and fiscal resource and budget management (FRBM) to it.
