Former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday urged the government to reinstate a statutory order on reservation for admission to postgraduate courses through the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test to ensure that super-specialty medical courses remain accessible and the interests of the UT’s youth are safeguarded.
Under the statutory order, 75% seats are meant for open category candidates in higher medical courses especially in PG courses. A fresh order by the Jammu and Kashmir government, however, recently reduced the percentage of open merit candidates to 40%.
Mufti in a post on X wrote, “Jammu and Kashmir’s youth, who comprise 65% of the population, having survived years of violence and protests, now face a new challenge in fighting for merit and justice in admission processes. The recent NEET PG results crisis has exacerbated the uncertainty, leaving their futures in limbo. It’s imperative that the UT government reinstates SRO 49 (2018) of the JK Reservation Act, to ensure that super-specialty medical courses remain accessible and the interests of J&K’s youth are safeguarded.”
Former city mayor, Junaid Mattu, meanwhile, criticised the National Conference (NC) government for failing to keep its promise and remaining silent on the reservation issue.
{{/usCountry}}Former city mayor, Junaid Mattu, meanwhile, criticised the National Conference (NC) government for failing to keep its promise and remaining silent on the reservation issue.
{{/usCountry}}“Why is the NC-INC Government silent on the Reservation Policy ‘rationalization’ promise? What became of the Sub-Committee? Where is the order? What is the frame of reference? Who is in it? What’s the duration for ‘review’? You have to be deluded to think that you can fool the youth,” Mattu wrote on X.
The fresh reservation policy, which has curtailed the open merit seats to less than 40%, which has been challenged in the high court.
Amid a growing chorus against it, the newly-elected Omar Abdullah-led National Conference government had in November formed a cabinet sub-committee to look into the issue.
Notably, the NC, which won the elections in the UT, had promised to re-look at the reservation policy in its election manifesto and there were growing demands from candidates and the Opposition to rationalise the policy.
Last week, a political science professor, Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, who is the statehood petitioner in Supreme Court, had also approached the HC against the reservation policy, which he said gives “70℅ share to reserved categories and only 30% share to open merit candidates” in government jobs and admission to education institutions.