JAMMU, April 1: Legislators from all parties voiced outrage Wednesday over the glaring absence of bureaucrats in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly’s officers’ gallery during Question Hour.
As the session wound down, NC MLA Nazi Gurezi lambasted the no-shows: “This House is being taken lightly. In my 22 years here, the gallery was packed—Chief Secretary, Commissioner Secretaries all present. Do they think idle people sit here?” He demanded Chief Minister intervention, calling bureaucrats “government servants” accountable to public representatives.
BJP MLAs Sham Lal Sharma and Pawan Gupta joined in, standing in protest. Sharma cited rules mandating departmental secretaries’ presence, urging deferral of absent departments’ business. Gupta questioned: “The executive is responsible to the legislature—why are they absent?”
The uproar spread to NC, PDP, Congress, PC, and independents, all rising in solidarity.
Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather intervened, mandating top officers for listed questions but noting space limits: “We can’t pack the entire secretariat here.”
