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NC MP, Oppn protest outside CM residence against reservation policy
The protesters shouted slogans against the reservation policy which had increased the reservation in jobs and admissions for reserved categories to over 60% earlier this year
A major protest led by National Conference’s (NC) member parliament from Srinagar Ruhullah Mehdi and joined by some opposition leaders and youth against the recently amended job reservation policy was held outside the residence of chief minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on Monday.
Amid the protest, CM Omar called a group of students to talk.
“Omar sab listened to our concerns, including rationalisation of reservation and time bound outcome of cabinet sub-committee. He said that they will work on it. He sought a six month time frame as they have to talk to all other stakeholders. We wanted a shorter time frame,” said a student leader Aqib Ahmad after the meeting with Omar.
Omar also tweeted over the issue. “Today I met the representatives of the Open Merit Students Association. The beauty of democracy is the right to be heard and dialogue in a spirit of mutual cooperation. I have made certain requests of them and given them a number of assurances. This channel of communication will remain open without any intermediaries or hangers on,” he said.
Earlier, Mehdi along with hundreds of youth, including young doctors and students of Government Medical College, Srinagar, marched on the Gupkar Road and assembled outside the residential office of the CM.
The protesters shouted slogans against the reservation policy which had increased the reservation in jobs and admissions for reserved categories to over 60% earlier this year.
Opposition leaders from Peoples Democratic Party, including Waheed Parra and Iltija Mufti also joined the protest alongside Mehdi. Awami Ittihad Party leader Sheikh Khursheed, brother of incarcerated Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, also became part of the protest demonstration. Mehdi acknowledged the presence of all the opposition leaders.
Mehdi clarified that they were not against the reservation of any disadvantaged group in Jammu and Kashmir. “Like our Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward areas and other groups face challenges and need handholding. Then providing them the reservation is justice. Similarly, extending reservation to an irrational level that affects the open merit candidates, then that is injustice for the open merit. Our demand is to rationalise the reservation policy,” he said.
Mehdi said that the government needs to use logic and provide reservation as per the population of each category or follow Supreme Court guidelines. “There are two ways for rationalisation of the policy. Provide reservation as per the population ratio. If their population is not more than 40% or is less than 60%, then this injustice should not be done with open merit… The other way is honouring the ruling by Supreme Court and set the open merit percentage at at-least 50%,” he said.
The Omar Abdullah-led Jammu and Kashmir government on December 10 constituted a three-member panel for a relook at the policy.
Mehdi said that the youth were not satisfied with the pace of work by the cabinet sub-committee.
“The CM formed cabinet sub-committee. As I returned from my parliamentary duties, I came to know that the people so far are not satisfied by the working and result of the sub-committee. For me, students are important. So I stood up on your behalf,” he said.
Mehdi said that the new government has been formed to solve the issues of people. He also lashed out at the way administration of the union territory has worked since the Abrogation of article 370 in 2019. He said that the roads here would reverberate with the voices of people and the pen should be raised in secretariat as per those wishes not as per the dictates from Delhi.
“We all voted after facing the ‘dictatorship’ and ‘forced administration’ of past five years and formed our government. We all tried to restore democracy here. Democracy was murdered here. Our (special) status was snatched away against our will… We have not forgotten 2019. We will answer through democracy not violence or undemocratic means. We will say goodbye to dictatorship and viceroy system from here…,” he said.
The resentment is also brewing within the general category population for curtailment of quota in both jobs and NEET and post graduate (PG) seats. Recently, when PG seats were announced in one of the prestigious medical institutes, just 30% postgraduate seats were left for general open merit candidates while the rest were reserved for candidates belonging to various categories.
At-least three petitions have been moved in the J&K high court challenging the present status of reservation in seats and jobs.
Opposition leader and Pulwama MLA Waheed Parra said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir should be granted pro rata representation. “Opportunities should be as per the population…Ruhullah sb has initiated this and we all say this that there will be no politics on this. We are with you and trust you for this initiative for youth,” he said.
Iltija Mufti sought a time bound result. “We sincerely hope that the government rationalises the reservation policy and most importantly it should be in a ‘time-bound’ manner. We don’t want any politics over the issue. There is massive unemployment and there are no jobs for our students. We want to secure their future,” she said.
