Officials reshuffled in Kashmir

In an administrative shake-up Saturday, the Jammu and Kashmir government transferred IAS and state administrative cadre officers including district magistrates and departmental secretaries.

The cabinet, which met here with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the chair, transferred six Indian Administrative Service officers including district magistrates of Kishtwar, Bandipora, Anantnag and Baramulla districts.

Those shifted are Basheer Ahmad Khan (Kishtwar), Farooq Ahmad Lone (Anantnag), Muhammad Yousuf Zargar (Bandipora) and Ghulam Ahmad Khwaja (Baramulla).

Besides district magistrates, the cabinet also ordered changes in administrative departments of power development, CAPD, rural sanitation, medical supplies corporation, social welfare, agriculture production, home, tourism, transport and communications and capacity development units of the public health engineering department.

As the state legislature session begins in Jammu Monday and the model code of conduct is reported to come into force from March 1, Saturday's reshuffle could be the last major administrative overhaul in Jammu and Kashmir before the Lok Sabha polls.