Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 27: Public Opinion Forum (POF), while assessing ongoing developmental activities besides functioning of the J&K Union Territory Administration, has impressed upon the Administration to make its stand crystal clear on the ending of Darbar Move practice.
While chairing the meeting held here today at Gandhi Nagar, POF president said that while the incumbent administration has bid farewell to the expensive and uncomfortable Darbar Move affair it is quite astonishing to find that the Civil Secretariat staff here in Jammu has substantial number of Kashmir based employees while the number of Jammu employees is quite sparse. He said that presence of the Valley employees in large numbers has made the matter suspicious and shoddy. He demanded that the J&K Administration must make its stand on the issue clear at the earliest.
Parveen stated that it is really an irony that despite discontinuation of Darbar Move, most of the provincial post Kashmiri employees continue working in Jammu Civil Secretariat. He asserted that most of the employees posted in the Civil Secretariat in Jammu should be from Jammu Province. He further said that even in case the Administration feels that there is non-availability of adequate employees from Jammu province, then it should go for fresh recruitments specifically inviting applications from aspirants belonging to Jammu Province only.
Reiterating the demand to appoint all employees on Provincial postings from Jammu Division only, Dr Gopal Parthasarthi Sharma, general secretary of the Forum said that till the Government does this the people of Jammu will be justified in terming as continuous discrimination against them despite Articles 370 and 35A having been shown the door in 2019.
On the occasion, the Public Opinion Forum launched Forum’s Grievance Cell for taking up the issues and problems of the people of Jammu province.