Mattoo is CM’s adviser

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has appointed noted academician and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu Amitabh Mattoo as adviser to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed

Updated At : 06:25 AM Aug 22, 2015 IST

Amitabh Mattoo

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 21

The Jammu and Kashmir Government has appointed noted academician and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Jammu Amitabh Mattoo as adviser to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

Mattoo will have the status of a Cabinet minister, a government spokesman said after the Cabinet met here today for the second time this week under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.

This is for the first time that a Kashmiri Pandit has been appointed as adviser to Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir. Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had two advisers. Devinder Singh Rana was appointed as political adviser in 2009 soon after the National Conference-Congress coalition government took over.

Later, Mubarak Gul took over as adviser in 2010 and retained the position till February 28, 2013, before becoming the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Earlier, Farooq Abdullah during his tenure as the Chief Minister between 1996 and 2002 had taken Shafi Shaida as his media adviser. There was no adviser to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Ghulam Nabi Azad between 2002 and 2008.