Recommendation held up for un-necessary details
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Feb 2: Unlike Pahari Speaking People, the inhabitants of International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir may have to wait little more for getting reservation on the pattern of those residing near the Line of Actual Control as the Department of Social Welfare is allegedly delaying the matter notwithstanding the Centre’s purported desire for clearance of the recommendations in this regard by the State Commission for Backward Classes before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the State on February 3.
Official sources told the Excelsior that after remaining inactive over the proposal for more than three months, the Department of Social Welfare is now allegedly delaying the matter by un-necessarily referring the subject for more details from certain quarters, which have no jurisdiction over the same.
Even as the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir exists only from Lakhanpur to Akhnoor, the Department of Social Welfare is learnt to have also sought details from Divisional Commissioner Kashmir about names of such villages in his jurisdiction, which are within an area of zero to six kilometers from the International Border, sources informed.
It may be recalled that in September last, the State Commission for Backward Classes had formally recommended for benefits of reservation to people living in border villages within an area of zero to six kilometers from the International Border by amending sub rule c (11) of the rule 4 of J&K Reservation Rules 2005 and re-cast it as “residents of the areas adjoining the Actual Line of Control (ALC) and the International Border (IB), instead of residents of area adjoining the Actual Line of Control (ALC)”.
As per the official data, reservation benefits to IB people will approximately cover a population exceeding three lakh and villages numbering over 350 from Kathua to Pargwal in Akhnoor. Residents of the areas adjoining Actual Line of Control (ALC) with Pakistan and China in Jammu and Kashmir have already been provided reservation benefits to the extent of three percent.
The Commission has recommended reservation benefits to the people of International Border in view of their repeated suffering on account of direct line fire, minor skirmishes, cross border fire and other similar incidents. Besides death and destruction, people living in border villages are often subjected to dislocation and displacement, which has physical and psychological affect on them. The people are forced to leave homes and denied health care as well as education. The studies of students of these villages are disturbed frequently and they therefore find it hard to compete with their counterparts of other peaceful areas.
However, even after more than three months since submission of the Commission’s recommendations in this regard to the Social Welfare Department, there was zero progress on the further exercise for according reservation benefits to the IB residents till announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to J&K on February 3.
As the Prime Minister’s Office desired final approval for reservation to Pahari Speaking People and International Border residents before Modi’s visit, sources said that the same was informally conveyed to the State Government following which Governor Satya Pal Malik accorded his nod to the Bill envisaging three percent quota to the Paharis, which was passed by the State Legislature in February 2018.
Even as the Department of Social Welfare was also made active for positively considering the Commission’s recommendation on IB residents, sources alleged that the intentions of those at the helm of affairs were not to speed up the matter but keep things shuttling for the reasons best known to them.
This is evident from Social Welfare Department’s letter number SW/BW/01/2015, dated 22-01-2019, to Divisional Commissioner Kashmir/Jammu seeking details of the villages within an area of 0-6 kms from International Border.
While there is no International Border in J&K except Kathua, Samba and Jammu districts, sources said that seeking details from Divisional Commissioner Kashmir about such IB villages in his jurisdiction was not a faux pas but intentional to delay the matter.
Further, sources said, there was no immediate requirement of the details of such villages in Jammu division also as the reservation has been proposed to the IB inhabitants by only recasting the existing rule for ALC residents without increasing or decreasing the quota. Moreover, sources added, the Commission for Backward Classes has already mentioned in its recommendations that according to data available with Divisional Commissioner Jammu, reservation benefits to IB people will approximately cover a population exceeding three lakh and villages numbering over 350 from Kathua to Pargwal in Akhnoor.
Though the Divisional Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma is learnt to have submitted required details of the villages to the Social Welfare Department on January 28, sources said that the recommendations were not forwarded to the Law Department for further action till date.
Despite repeated attempts, the Secretary Social Welfare Department, Farooq Ahmad Peer did not respond to the phone calls for seeking his version over the matter.
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