Pahari people warn of Panchayat poll boycott

Excelsior Correspondent

RAJOURI, Jan 16: All Jammu and Kashmir Pahari Tribe Joint Forum has criticised the final notice issued by the Directorate of  Rural Development Department Jammu for the reservation of SC/ ST Panch constituencies/ Panchayat Halqas of Jammu Division, ignoring Pahari people.
Talking to media persons,  Gurdev Singh senior member of the  Forum said that State Government is going to hold Panchayat elections in the State  during February-March 2018 and now the Directorate  has issued fresh final notice for reservation of Schedule Tribe Community (Gujjar/Bakkerwal) which is totally unconstitutional and injustice with Pahari people.
He maintained that  Directorate of  RDD Jammu vide Notice dated 29-12-2017 proposed for reservation as SC/ST on the basis of population proportion and now the department of the RDD  issued fresh final notice and in the said notice the ward/Panch constituencies have been reserved as SC/ST on the basis of population proportion in the concerned Ward/Panch constituency and similarly, the Sarpanch constituencies within the block are also being reserved for SC/STs. They totally debarred the Pahari people to even contest the Panchayat elections. He warned to boycott elections by Pahari people if the corrective measures are not adopted.
Rashid Ganai, Gulam Mustafa, Karamat Ullah Malik, Rattan Singh and Jasbir Singh also accompanied.