Srinagar: After PDP members were barred from marching to Residency Road to protest and demand the release of the report prepared by the Jammu and Kashmir government’s cabinet sub-committee on reservation rationalisation, they demonstrated outside the party office here on Saturday.
Party sources said PDP workers led by Iltija Mufti assembled at the party office for the protest march.
They said when police personnel blocked the PDP office’s main gate, Iltija and several party leaders and workers climbed over the gate in a vain attempt to march towards Residency Road.
Iltija told reporters that the Omar Abdullah government had promised protesting general category students demanding a review of the existing reservation policy to address “the lopsided reservation policy within six months”.
“(Almost) two years have passed since then, and the promise of justice by CM Omar Abdullah to the students has not been fulfilled,” she said.
Under the current reservation policy, nearly 70 percent of government jobs and seats in educational institutes, including professional colleges, are reserved. Open merit candidates, who constitute 70 percent of Jammu and Kashmir’s population, must compete for only 30 percent of the seats.
“Families sell their land and exhaust their life savings to educate their children, hoping education will open doors to a better future. But when opportunities for open merit aspirants are squeezed by an unfair and skewed reservation balance, the burden falls on both parents and children. Their struggle cannot be ignored,” she said.
