Govt sets up 3-member panel for division of assets, liabilities between J&K and Ladakh

NEW DELHI: The Centre has constituted a three-member committee for division of assets and liabilities of Jammu and Kashmir between two successor Union territories, which came into existence on October 31.

This was conveyed to members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs by senior officials led by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla.

An advisory committee has been constituted under Section 84 of the J-K Reorganisation Act for apportionments of assets, rights and liabilities between UT of J-K and Ladakh, Bhall and his team of officers told the committee headed by Congress leader Anand Sharma. The 14th Finance Commission award has been apportioned between the UTS of J-K and Ladakh in the ratio of 70 per cent and 30 per cent for the remaining five months of the 2019-20 fiscal. All the seventh central pay commission-mandated allowances have been approved for government employees of the UTS of J-K and Ladakh.

Earlier, the Home Ministry had announced that former defence secretary Sanjay Mitra would be the chairman of the committee, retired IAS officer Arun Goyal and retired Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) officer Giriraj Prasad Gupta would be its members.

As per Section 84 of the Act, the assets and liabilities of the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir have to be apportioned between the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

On August 5, the Centre announced the abrogation of the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and division of the state into the two UTS.

The apportionment of the assets and liabilities of the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be subject to the recommendations of a committee constituted by the central government, it said.

According to Section 85 of the Act, the central government, by an order, can establish one or more advisory committees for apportionment of assets, rights and liabilities of the companies and corporations constituted for the existing state of Jammu and Kashmir between the two Union territories.