Gloomy Situation Calls for Administrative Changes

Srinagar, Aug 7 (KMW): In an important development it is learnt that the Centre recently has suggested to the J&K Chief Minister to change the state police chief and the Chief Secretary.

While the state government has the option of appointing any of the two senior IAS officers — Satinder Singh Sahni of the 1974 batch or Samuel Varghese of the 1976 batch — to replace current Chief Secretary Sham Singh Kapur, it has no such option as far as finding a replacement for DGP Kuldeep Khoda goes.

One officer, who could have easily replaced him, is Khoda’s batchmate P S Gill, who, while he was in J&K, handled many assignments. 

However, since July last year, Gill is posted as Punjab DGP.

With Gill’s return unlikely, the Omar Abdullah government and the central government both face the difficult task of finding a suitable officer with adequate experience in counter-terrorism and law and order to appoint him to the post.

Pertinently, since 2008 summer till now, 200 Kashmiri, mostly young teenagers have been shot dead in order to prevent protests. 

Most of the martyrs have been hit on head, chest and other sensitive areas, which also calls for revamping the administrative machinery.