Omar breaks silence on ministerial status issue

Breaking silence over conferring ministerial status on his advisors, Omar Abdullah today said it was a matter of happiness that his government had been able to constitute powerful institutions which even questioned the chief minister of the state.

Breaking silence over conferring ministerial status on his advisors, Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said it was a matter of happiness that his government had been able to constitute powerful institutions which even questioned the chief minister of the state.

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"It is my cherished desire to make people powerful and give them legal rights to ask questions from top to bottom in the government for every action it takes," Omar told a public rally, some 20-km from Srinagar.

The chief minister was referring to the show-cause notice issued by the State Accountability Commission to him and various Boards for conferring ministerial status on his political advisors and several vice-chairpersons.

"I will not go into whether it is legal or not, but we have raised such institutions which have empowered the people. Today, you can question the government on any issue. We have made ourselves accountable," Omar said.

Giving details of important steps taken by his government in the past three years, he said the enactment of the Public Service Guarantee Act had given powers to general public at the grassroot level.

The Act had empowered people to obtain 50 public services from Power, Revenue, Housing, Transport and other two other departments within the prescribed time-frame, he said.