National Conference raises concern over ‘skewed reservation policy’ in J&K

Senior ruling National Conference (NC) leaders, including party president Farooq Abdullah and J&K Assembly Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather, have raised concerns over the current reservation policy, introduced during Central rule in the Union Territory (UT) that benefits reservation category candidates up to 70%.

“General category candidates, if we keep increasing reservation, will be pushed to the status of the Scheduled Castes as was in 1947. Open merit is facing an injustice. An effort is needed to address this injustice. The current policy of quotas is taking jobs at the cost of merit,” Dr. Abdullah said in a speech made in Srinagar on Sunday.

Dr. Abdullah said there were growing complaints from meritorious students failing to get admission into professional colleges. “Open Merit aspirants’ complaint is that a majority of medical, engineering seats etc. were going to people with 45% marks and not those with 80% and above,” he added.

J&K Assembly Speaker Mr. Rather also expressed concern over “regional imbalance in the issuance of Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) certificates”. “It is a serious issue. No section of society should be subjected to injustice. I have directed the government to examine it,” Mr. Rather said.

Meanwhile, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra said there was a worrying trend to “exclude Kashmiri-speaking population from the governance system”.

“No one is opposed to reservation for those living in disadvantageous locations or economically weaker sections, but it should not come at the cost of merit and the Kashmiri-speaking population. Reservation should be as per the population ratio. If the general category is 70%, it should get its due,” Mr. Parra said.

The Opposition leader said Kashmiri youth, who suffered greatly in the past few decades, were being subjected to a harsh new police verification policy and “denied the right to jobs”.

“Many aspirants are those who face charges and many are those who qualify but are denied the right to join because their relatives were separatists,” Mr. Parra said.

EWS certificate distribution

He added that the distribution of EWS certificates between the Kashmir and Jammu divisions is skewed, “which makes it further discriminatory”.

The J&K government recently told the Assembly that 2,486 EWS certificates were issued in the Kashmir division against 24,058 in the Jammu division in the last two years.

Meanwhile, a Jammu-based body, the Joint Action Committee Reserve Categories, on Monday said it will start UT-wide protests if the reservation policy was not fully implemented as per UGC norms.

“There are misleading statements over reservation policy. Who included the categories like EWS, Resident of Backward Area (RBA) etc. above the 50% slab on reservation?” the leader of the committee asked.

Under the Lieutenant Governor’s rule, the reservation quotas increased by granting a 10% extra quota to the Paharis and raising the OBC quota from 5% to 8%. Prior to the spike in reservation, J&K had 8% reservation for Scheduled Castes, 10% for Scheduled Tribes, 4% for OBCs, 4% for residents along the Line of Actual Control/International Border, 10% for Residents of Backward Area (RBA), and 10% for EWS.