Srinagar, Sep 24: Speaker of the J&K Legislative Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather on Thursday pulled up the transport minister Satish Sharma over utilisation of multiple vehicles by officers holding charge of more than one department, saying that “J&K is a poor state and we can’t afford luxuries”. Minister was replying to a question raised by BJP MLA R S Pathania regarding the utilisation of multiple vehicles by the officers having charge of multiple departments.
Pathania asked the government if the Government has strictly enforced or proposes to enforce “One Officer One Vehicle” ceiling across all the Departments/ PSUs/ Boards/ Autonomous Bodies to curb retention of multiple official vehicles.
While replying the question, transport minister informed the House that at present, there is no specific Government PolicY Prescribing a uniform ceiling for allotment/retention of official vehlcles by individual officers across all the departments of the J&K government. “However, the Revised Car Policy is presently under considerationof the Government, wherein it has beenproposed to introduce the principle of One Vehicle-One Officer,” he said.
He informed the House that the proposed policy shall also provide for such specific exceptions as may be considered necessary by the government, keeping in view security requirements, field duties, additional assignments/charges, operational exigencies and the functional req-uirements of Pa rticularr departments/organizations’after approval of the Revised Car Policy by the Government.
“The provisions there of shall be implemented across the concerned Departments/ PSUs/ Boards/ Autonomous Bodies as Per the approved policy. The proposed “One Vehicle -one officer” principle is thus intended to ensure rationalization of Government vehicles, optimum utilization of availabpe resources. After the minister read out the reply, Speaker intervened and asked the minister about the action taken in the matter.
“You said that a high level committee has been constituted in the matter on September 1, 2026. Tell me what have you done in these 24 days. Why are you delaying the process. Will you take another two months to resolve the matter,” speaker told sports minister with directions to inform the House about the action taken in the matter.
To this, transport minister said that he will come with a detailed report.
“It is a legacy issue. But I will present the action taken report in the House,” he added.
Speaker replied saying: “what if the legacy issue is followed wrongly, will you continue it? Inform the House in the ongoing session with your action taken report.” (GK)
