Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 12: The people from remote Lohai-Malhar and Bani area of district Kathua have demanded ST-2 status, claiming that population of this entire belt is also Pahari speaking.
A delegation of the area led by social activist, Lekh Raj Sundram today submitted a memorandum to Lt Governor of the JKUT, Manoj Sinha through SDM Bani, seeking Sinha’s attention over the issue. They stressed that the people of this belt of Bani constituency speaks Pahari like otjher areas including Rajouri and Poonch. It will be great discrimination with the people of this belt if they were ignored of this benefit. They fully deserve grant of ST-2 status/ reservation.
It was further submitted to stop quota under RBA. They said the RBA category does not exist in any other Indian State, Union Territory, or in Central Government recruitment or institutional admissions. It is a discriminatory form of reservation that contradicts the principle of one nation-one reservation. Earlier, RBA had 20% reservation before the abrogation of Article 370; thereafter, it was reduced to 10% in 2020 in JKUT, and now the proposal to further reduce it to 7%.
All these areas are Phari-speaking, snow-bound, geographically remote, seasonally migratory to dhoks allotted by forest and revenue departments, and thus meet the criteria for ST-2 classification. A detailed memorandum already stands submitted in 2023 to the Chairman ST/SC/OBC Board, the Home Minister of India, the Chairman Reservation Review Committee, and the Chairman, J&K Backward Classes Commission.
It was also pleaded that the creamy-layer exclusion must be applied across all reserved categories, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s landmark 1992 judgement (Indira Sawhney case). No family should repeatedly receive reservation benefits when its economic status is equal to or higher than that of the general category.
They demanded to reconsider the proposal of the Omar government and recommend the merging of 10% RBA into 10% ST-2, enhancing the total ST-2 reservation to 20 per cent.
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