Poor visibilityat Jammu airport forces CM to travel by road
Omar starts work from JK winter capital
Jammu: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah shared glimpses of his road trip from Srinagar to attend his office in the civil secretariat here on Monday, a day after his flight to the winter capital got cancelled due to poor visibility at the Jammu airport.
Eleven flights were cancelled on Sunday due to low visibility and another was called off due to technical reasons, airport officials said here.
“Poor visibility in Jammu meant a sudden, last minute, road trip. Nothing flew in to or out from Jammu yesterday (Sunday) so I had to saddle up and take the road to the winter capital,” Abdullah said in a post on X.
He also shared three videos of his cavalcade moving on Sunday from the summer capital Srinagar towards Jammu — a drive that usually takes around five hours.
Airport officials, however, said flight operations resumed on Monday morning as per schedule.
In another post, Abdullah said, “Looking at the visibility from the balcony of the official residence I don’t think flights will be operating any time soon today either. You can barely see the sun in the haze.”
This is the chief minister’s first visit to the Jammu civil secretariat after assuming charge on October 16.
Earlier, the government had directed bureaucrats to ensure their presence at the Civil Secretariat in Jammu starting from November 11.
Meanwhile,Chief Minister Omar Abdullah started working from the Civil Secretariat here on Monday, as part of an annual practice of shifting administrative base to the winter capital.
The deputy chief minister, cabinet ministers, chief secretary, administrative secretaries, and heads of departments also resumed their work from Jammu, officials said.
According to a General Administration Department order dated October 23, only the administrative secretaries and the top department heads will shift to Jammu from Srinagar under a curtailed Darbar move.
The Civil Secretariat in Srinagar will also remain functional, as the order stated.
The annual move, a long-standing tradition in Jammu and Kashmir, was halted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The practice involved shifting the government from Srinagar to Jammu from October to May due to harsh cold conditions in the valley.
Meanwhile, an official spokesman said that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah received a rousing welcome at the Civil Secretariat in Jammu upon his arrival to assume office in the winter capital.
This marked his first official visit to the Jammu Secretariat since taking office as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on October 16 in Srinagar.
He said that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was warmly greeted by his Council of ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary and cabinet members SakeenaMasoodItoo, Javed Ahmad Rana, Javid Ahmad Dar, and Satish Sharma.
Advisor to the Chief Minister NasirAslamWani, Chief Secretary AtalDulloo, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Dheeraj Gupta and other senior officials, and staff of the Civil Secretariat were also present to receive him.
In a gesture of camaraderie, the Chief Minister visited the chambers of his ministers to formally welcome them, reflecting his commitment to fostering a collaborative working environment.
During his visit, Chief Minister also inspected the ongoing construction of the new Assembly Complex.
He toured the complex, where officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) Roads & Buildings (R&B) Division provided a detailed briefing on the project’s various stages, timeline and next steps.
Abdullah is the first Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir since its reorganisation as a Union Territory.
He earlier served as a J-K chief minister from 2009 to 2014, when it was still a full-fledged state. (With inputs from PTI)
KV News
