Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 1: Jammu and Kashmir Kashyap Samaj (Jheewer Biradri) has alleged that no door-to-door survey was ever conducted to assess the actual population of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the Union Territory, despite repeated Government assurances.
The concern was raised during a meeting of the community chaired by Darshan Mehra, focusing on political awareness and representation of OBCs in local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions.
Speaking on the occasion, Amit Mehra, Youth president of the Samaj, highlighted that despite constituting nearly six lakh people in J&K, the Kashyap community continues to have nil representation in the Panchayati Raj system, Urban Local Bodies and the J&K Assembly.
Sunny Mehra criticized the continuation of the State Reservation Act of 2004 and SRO-294 of 2005 even after the 2019 conversion of the State into a Union Territory. He said the Justice (Retired) G D Sharma Commission, constituted without any OBC member, reduced the OBC reservation from 27% to 8% without a door-to-door survey, while extending benefits to upper castes already covered under the 10% EWS quota.
Arjun Tak, Youth leader, stated that though amendments were made to the Panchayati Raj Act, 1989, and the Municipal Act, 2000, the OBC population data remains incomplete as Deputy Commissioners failed to conduct physical surveys since 2014, as confirmed through RTI replies.
Jagdish Kashyap, president of Ward 66 (Roop Nagar), noted that the Government still relies on the outdated 1931 census, which pegged OBCs at 32%. The community demanded that local body elections be held only after the 2026 national census for fair representation.
The meeting concluded with a resolution urging the Government to declare April 5 as an optional holiday to mark Maharishi Kashyap Jayanti and to organize a Kashyap Samaj Ekta and Adhikar Tiranga Yatra from December 20-21, covering various regions of Jammu.
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