Srinagar: People’s Conference chief Sajad Gani Lone on Saturday highlighted “stark regional imbalances” in issuing reservation certificates in Jammu and Kashmir and alleged the entire concept of reservation in the Union Territory was “rigged” against Kashmir.
Taking a dig at the J&K government, Lone said that the cabinet committee established lacked a specific timeline contrary to what was claimed at the time of its establishment.
Lone cited the data he had received in response to a question in the Assembly to claim that the Jammu region dominated certificate issuances in nearly all categories from April 1, 2023.
“The data shows a vast regional disparity. It highlights stark regional imbalances in the issuance of reservation certificates across Jammu and Kashmir. The findings are a shocker,” the Handwara MLA said at a press conference.
He said 100 percent of the 67,112 Scheduled Caste (SC) certificates issued in the Union Territory had exclusively been in Jammu.
“The Scheduled Tribe (ST) category showed Jammu issuing 4,59,493 certificates (85.3 percent) while Kashmir issued only 79,813 (14.7 percent). Similar imbalances exist for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) — 92.3 percent in Jammu and 7.7 percent in Kashmir,” he said.
“For the Actual Line of Control, 94.3 percent certificates have been issued in Jammu and only 5.7 percent in Kashmir, and 100 percent in Jammu for International Border categories,” he added.
Even in the Reserved Backward Area category, Jammu led with 52.8 percent of the certificates against Kashmir’s 48.2 percent, Lone alleged.
The Handwara MLA said these disparities revealed a greater loss of quotas to the Kashmiri-speaking population than previously anticipated.
“The whole reservation concept is rigged against the Kashmiri-speaking population and against STs or EWS living in Kashmir,” he said.
Lone claimed even ST populations residing in Kashmir were disadvantaged, comprising only 15 percent of total applicants from the pool.
He criticised the committee established by the Union Territory government on December 10 to address these grievances, saying it lacked a specific timeline for submitting its report despite previous indications of a six-month deadline.
“The biggest perpetrators are the officers in Kashmir who do not issue such certificates here but are issued in Jammu. Is it a policy or are they doing it on their own? I do not know,” he said.
Asserting that he was not against reservation, Lone said he was against the “murder of merit”.
“There is a reservation of 60 percent. But within that reservation is a much bigger scam. It is a post-dated cheque for disaster. Kashmiris not making it to the KAS (Kashmir Administrative Service) or other exams is not because they are incompetent. It is the scourge of reservation that is killing their competence,” the People’s Conference chief said.
“If, for example, 100 candidates appear in an exam, 60 seats are reserved. Out of that, 50.78 seats are for Jammu and 9.22 for Kashmir. So, before you apply reservation, Kashmiris have already been crowded out,” he added.
He pinned the blame on all Jammu and Kashmir governments, saying this had silently carried on since 1989.
“Academically, it will take a century to undo the damage,” he added.
Lone said the People’s Conference would organise a seminar and invite academics to deliberate on the issue.
Figures don’t lie…
As highlighted by Peoples Conference chief and MLA Handwara, Sajad Gani Lone, here is what the figures have to say in terms of certificates for various reserved categories issued so far:
- In SC category, 100% certificates in Jammu only, none in Kashmir
- In ST category, 85.3% certificates in Jammu, only 14.7% in Kashmir
- In EWS category, 92.3% certificates in Jammu, only 7.7% in Kashmir
- In Actual Line of Control category, 94.3% certificates in Jammu, only 5.7% in Kashmir,
- In International Border category, 100% certificates in Jammu, none in Kashmir.
- In RBA category, Jammu leads with 52.8% against 48.2% in Kashmir.
