Omar Abdullah’s delight soon turned into a discomforting and humbling experience on Thursday, providing a reminder of the limits of his power as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

The social media handles of the chief minister and the ruling National Conference had “announced” a salary hike for contractual police but had to soon delete the post and sack an official after being reminded that law and order were not within the ambit of the Union Territory’s elected government.

The embarrassment and social media lampooning that followed only increased the unease of the Omar government, which has been facing flak for failing to deliver on key pre-poll promises.

The deleted post on Omar’s Instagram handle said: “Delighted to announce a hike in SPO honorarium for Jammu & Kashmir: New recruits to get ₹12,000 monthly; after 5 years: 18,000; after 10 years: 24,000; and after attaining 15+ years of service, the SPOs will get ₹30,000 per month salary. #ApkiSarkaarApkeSath.”

Special police officers (SPOs) now receive honorariums of ₹12,000 to ₹18,000 depending on the length of their service. Jammu and Kashmir has over 30,000 SPOs, on temporary hire.

After the posts, which had gone viral in no time, were deleted, the NC said it had dismissed Omar’s social media adviser for the “faux pas”.

Jammu and Kashmir’s police department comes under the Union home ministry, which delegates the charge to the lieutenant governor’s administration under a hybrid model of governance.

The NC clarified that the social media post “put out from various handles connected to the party and the chief minister should not have been put out”.

“(It was) done without any attempt to verify or cross-check the information being put out,” the party said in a statement. “While we have been strongly advocating for an increase in the honorarium and are making every effort to see this is done, it hasn’t happened till now.”

The NC said the “person responsible has been taken to task and has been divested of his responsibility as social media adviser to VP JKNC”. Omar is vice-president of the NC. However, the party faced questions for “hiding the identity” of the chief minister’s social media adviser.

After the salary hike had been “announced”, Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone had sought a clarification, underlining that the matter lay in the domain of the Union home ministry.

“Is it true? The salaries of SPOs are funded by 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 an MHA domain. Reposted — as NC deleted the post,” Lone said on X.

Former Srinagar mayor Junaid Mattu too criticised the government. “On ONE hand we have @JKNC_ and the @CM_JnK constantly telling us that the Home Dept and L&O (law and order) doesn’t come under the elected Government. And on the OTHER hand they claim credit for increased honorarium of SPOs of @JmuKmrPolice with a cutout of the CM’s picture! Post deleted now?” he posted on X.

The NC also became the butt of jokes on social media. “2 min silence for those who cast their vote for NC,” a social media user said.