Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 29: The Jammu Kashmir Sharnarthi Action Committee (JKSAC) has urged upon the Government to provide Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and reservation to the displaced persons ( DPs) of 1947 from PoK who also speak Pahari language and have been thrown out by Pakistani Tribals from their native hilly areas adjoining Rajouri and Poonch districts.
In a meeting of the JKSAC held in RS Pura today under the leadership of its president Gurdev Singh, the members urged upon State Govt to grant ST status and reservation to DPs of 1947 from PoK who also speak Pahari languages and have been thrown out by Pakistani raiders from their native areas of PoK like Mirpur, Kotli, Bhimber, Kahuta, parts of Poonch, Rawlakote etc and are awaiting for their re-settlement after lapse of more than six decades.
He referred to Cabinet meeting held at Srinagar on July 28 chaired by Mehbooba Mufti wherein, the Cabinet on the basis of a report submitted by a committee to study the socio-economic status and common ethnic characteristics of Pahari speaking language people in State, recommended to Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, to grant ST Status to Pahari people.
Gurdev Singh strongly condemned the Coalition Govt to take such biased decision and charged the State Govt to follow the footsteps of previous NC, Congress Govt for carving out again a new community on the basis of Pahari language merely for political consideration. He said that people living in the hilly areas of the State and so called newly carved out Pahari speaking community already fall under RBA, ST, SC, LoC, OBC category and are already enjoying such status / reservations in one way or the other.
He further said that instead of making such recommendations to gain political mileage the Govt would have evolved a fair criteria to grant any kind of such status / reservation. Either on the basis of languages spoken in the hilly area or for persons/ communities who are socially, educationally, economically and politically backward has also been recommended by Justice Ranga Rajan, Mishra and Sacher panel, constituted by GoI and also justice Anand Commission report.
Mr Singh claimed that there is no such “Pahari language” in itself. In the hilly areas of the State, there live many communities having different religion, faiths and cultures and they speak different languages. DPs from PoK also speak languages being spoken presently in the hilly areas of Rajouri-Poonch, and are socially, educationally and economically backward. He urged upon the State Govt to review the decision and demanded to grant ST status to DPs.
Netar Prakash, general secretary urged upon Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh to formulate a comprehensive road map as per the recommendation of JPC for the permanent resolution of the issue and get released Rs 2000 crore announced by PM as relief for early disbursal.
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