As against required 9, the NC Govt has 6 ministers
NL Correspondent
Jammu Tawi, Jan 18: It will be for the first time that the budget session of the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Legislative Assembly at Jammu beginning from 2nd of February onwards will be held with full House strength of 90 MLAs but with less ministerial strength.
Earlier, the Assembly sessions were held in J&K with strength of 88 members as Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah vacated the Budgam seat, while the Nagrota Assembly seat fell vacant after the untimley death of BJP MLA, Devender Singh Rana.
As per constitutional norms and Parliamentary practice, the strength of the ministers must be 10% of strength of the House.
There are 90 MLAs in J&K Assembly but there are only 6 ministers including Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister as against the required 9 ministers.
The upcoming Budget session will also be an uphill task for the National Conference (NC) government to manage the proceedings of the House as there are only 6 ministers to respond to the Opposition’s questions in the House on various issues relating to different departments.
The NC government was formed in October 2024 with support of Congress and independents. However, since then, the NC’s alliance partner, Cong did not join the government due to severe differences with the NC.
Pertinently, this upcoming Budget session is the second one but so far the NC government has not completed the required strength of ministers due to varied reasons, including differences with its coalition partner, Cong.
It may be mentioned that in the upcoming Budget session, there will be Question Hour, Zeros Hour, Private Members Bills, Appropriation Bills, discussion on LG’s Address, Resolutions, besides discussion on the budget.
In this scenario, the NC government has only 6 ministers to respond.
