J&K: Omar Abdullah’s social media advisor sacked after misleading post on SPO honorarium hike

Srinagar, Jan 30 (PTI) The ruling National Conference on Thursday announced that it has sacked the social media advisor to party Vice President Omar Abdullah for erroneously posting claiming credit for the hike in the honorarium of Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Jammu and Kashmir Police.

“A recent post concerning the SPOs’ honorarium was shared from various handles connected to the party and the Chief Minister. This post should not have been put out and was done without any attempt to verify or cross-check the information being shared. While we have been strongly advocating for an increase in the honorarium and are making every effort to see this done, it has not happened till now,” the National Conference said in a post on its official handle on X.

Earlier, a post on the party’s official handle had claimed that the Omar Abdullah government had enhanced the honorarium for the SPOs. The post was later deleted.

“The person responsible has been taken to task and has been divested of his responsibility as Social Media Advisor to the Vice President of JKNC,” the party added.

The National Conference’s move came in the wake of criticism from various quarters, including People’s Conference President Sajad Gani Lone.

“Is it true? The salaries of SPOs are funded by the MHA through SRE (Security Related Expenditure). Still, if the state government has created or invented a way to supplement their salaries—some clarification on that. Per se, it is MHA’s domain,” Lone said.

He also posted a screenshot of the NC’s earlier post, saying “Reposted” after the original was deleted.