A fresh tension between the J&K state government and bureaucracy has surfaced, with Cabinet Minister Satish Sharma lashing out at "arrogant" officers obstructing elected authority. On January 15, 2026, responding to delays in compassionate appointments under SO12 at the Jammu and Kashmir Road Transport Corporation, Sharma accused post-2019 bureaucrats of clinging to a Union Territory mindset, unwilling to yield to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's government. Sharma declared no room for dual power centers, warning that bureaucratic "expiry" looms as J&K eyes full statehood restoration. He hinted at personal calls to errant officials and alleged some are sabotaging the regime after failed political bids worth crores. Speculatively, this could trigger transfers, CM-led probes, or Delhi intervention, testing the fragile elected-bureaucrat balance amid restoration talks—exposing deeper governance fault lines in the region.