J&K administration gears up for upcoming Amarnath yatra
Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo on Tuesday reviewed preparations being made by the administration for smooth conduct of the yatra.
The Jammu and Kashmir Administration on Friday ordered former Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti to vacate the sprawling bungalow ‘Fairview’ on Srinagar’s Gupkar Road in which she has been residing since 2005 when her father Mufti Sayeed was the Chief Minister of J&K.
The eviction notice under Sub-Section 1 of Section 4 of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act 1988, read with amended Act, 2016, has been sent to Mehbooba by the Deputy Director (Estates), Kashmir. Mehbooba has been offered an alternate accommodation in Srinagar on ‘security or any other grounds.’
Immediately after J&K was split and downgraded into a Union Territory in 2019, the provision of lifelong allotment of government bungalows to former Chief Ministers and other perks were withdrawn. Two former Chief Ministers – Omar Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad – vacated the government houses in 2020 as soon as the new rules were enforced.
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The ‘Fairview’ bungalow during the peak of terrorism was used as a joint interrogation centre by the BSF and other security forces. The bungalow was earlier a government guest house.
The interrogation centre was named PAPA-2 by the BSF and was considered a fearful place even by hard core terrorists. At that time, the BSF was looking after the internal security of Kashmir. However, the interrogation centre was closed in 1996 when top bureaucrat Ashok Jaitley moved into the bungalow.
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