Srinagar: The All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee on Wednesday demanded reservation of four seats for the community in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.
“Despite our meeting with the Delimitation Commission headed by Justice (retired) Ranjana Desal, no reservation whatsoever has been earmarked for the Sikhs even though we demanded for the same in the meeting, and it was also mentioned in the memorandum submitted to the Commission,” APSCC chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina told reporters here.
Raina said the “cold-shouldered attitude” of the commission means that basic rights in Jammu and Kashmir will not be extended to the Sikh minority in the forthcoming delimitation of Assembly segments.
“We demand reservation of four seats for Sikhs in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly,” he said.
The APSCC chairman said all governments of Jammu and Kashmir in the past have “deliberately ignored” the basic issues of the community.
“The issues have piled up due to non-resolution and we fail to understand the measuring rod used by the people at helm to measure or understand the problems of Sikhs of Jammu and Kashmir. We have been neglected and discriminated against all along even in the new set-up of Union Territory,” he said.
Despite repeated promises, he said the Sikh community is not given the status of minority in Jammu and Kashmir.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been praising the historical contribution of Sikhs in the country, he never tried to understand the issues faced by the minority, the APSCC chairman alleged.
Raina said Sikhs are “openly discriminated” in various government orders and packages, while other minorities are getting exclusive and secret packages of jobs for their youth.
