Jammu and Kashmir’s Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary at Bawe Wali Mata temple in Jammu on Saturday (Express Photo)Jammu and Kashmir’s Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Saturday asked why the Central government did not give extension to Atal Dulloo, a 1992-batch AGMUT cadre IAS officer, who retired as the Union Territory’s Chief Secretary on October 31.“When officials in other parts of the country had been given extensions, why was the same not granted to Atal Dullo Sahib?” He asked. “Is it because he belonged to Jammu and Kashmir?” he questioned.“If you wanted a new chief secretary, then you should have appointed someone who hailed from Jammu and Kashmir,’’ he said. “If you did not want to give extension to Atal Dulloo Sahib, then you should have appointed some local, a son of the soil, whether a Hindu or a Muslim, as his successor,” Chaudhary added.“But did the BJP say anything about it?’’ he asked, accusing the ruling party at the Centre and a section of the media of “only trying to make news about the National Conference (NC)”. He said, “Will this result in progress and development of J&K? Is it going to help local youth get jobs or daily wagers get regularised?”Dulloo, hailing from the Valley’s Kashmiri Pandit community, has been succeeded by Dr Sajjan Singh Yadav.Talking to media persons after paying obeisance at Bawe Wali Mata temple in Jammu, Choudhary expressed unhappiness that “everyday, local BJP leaders and a section of media come out with the same old news of discontent among NC MLAs”, asking them to “move on’’.The MLAs have returned satisfied after their meeting with party president Dr Farooq Abdullah and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday and this was also visible from their faces and statements, he told media persons.Story continues below this adWhen my leader (Farooq Abdullah), the NC president, and the chief minister discussed the matter with all the MLAs, that was the end of it,” the Deputy CM said.However, the BJP and a section of media want to maintain such an atmosphere in J&K in which public issues do not get addressed, he said.‘Why no talk on statehood?’He asked media persons to work honestly and raise issues actually concerning the people of J&K. “There are many big issues like statehood, but they do not talk about it,” he said, questioning their “silence” on representation of local bureaucrats on key administrative positions in the UT.Choudhary, who defeated former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Ravinder Raina in Nowshera Assembly constituency, is considered the ruling party’s key face in the Hindu-dominated Jammu region. The BJP here had won 29 of the 45 assembly seats in the 2024 elections.Story continues below this adWith NC making efforts to regain its foothold in areas in Jammu region that are considered BJP bastions, Choudhary has been facing repeated targeting from leaders of the Opposition party.