Farooq’s fight for Paharis started in 1983
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 5: Provincial president of National Conference for Jammu, Rattan Lal Gupta today said that the struggle initiated by NC patron Dr Farooq Abdullah for the Pahari community’s rights in 1983 has finally reached its logical conclusion in 2022, after HM Amit Shah’s assurance over providing reservation to the community.
In a statement issued here, the NC leader said that the issue which was raised by the NC way back in 1980s has now been addressed by the Centre as it is likely that Paharis will get a sigh of relief in the form of adequate reservation. He, however, made it clear that NC will not tolerate that the ‘dole’ to the Paharis shall be given at the costs of genuine rights of Gujjars and Bakerwals.
Gupta said that NC leadership was continuously taking up the matter of Paharis with Centre since 1983 as Dr Farooq Abdullah has also written a letter to the then PM to grant reservation to the Poonch and Rajouri districts. He said that NC was pursuing the matter continuously with the Centre and the endeavour has finally led to relief to the community, which is a welcome step.
He said that the decades’ old struggle by the NC has finally forced the Central dispensation to cede to the demand which was fair enough to be addressed years ago. He said that NC was also expecting employment package for the youth of Jammu and Kashmir from the visiting Home Minister as unemployment rate has all time high and reached upto 32.75%, which is highest in the country right now. NC leader also corrected the Home Minister over taking the credit of five Medical colleges and said that the same were sanctioned under the NC regime headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, by taking up the matter with the then Central Government headed by former PM Manmohan Singh.
Reacting on the three families remark by Shah, Rattan Lal said that Abdullah family had served the people of J&K for the last more than seven decades and Sheikh Abdullah had remained in prison for the cause of getting justice and therefore, no one in the country is so big in stature to cook unfounded stories for the sake of political mileage by twisting the historical facts which are unchallengeable and true to the hilt.
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