n a bid to corner the newly elected Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over the existing Reservation policy, the opposition party leaders have started mounting pressure by exposing the delicate fault lines between two distinct regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
After the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) demanded fair representation for the open merit candidates based on their total population, the Peoples Conference President, Sajad Lone, Saturday launched a scathing attack against the UT administration, claiming that the whole reservation concept was rigged against Kashmir.
After the formation of the popular government in Jammu and Kashmir, Reservation has become a major issue. The Central government’s decision to add more communities to the reserved category and expand quotas in the UT over the past five years raised the tension among the open merit candidates.
There are increasing objections to the Centre’s move to push the reservation quota to 70 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Lone also termed the statistics revealed by the J&K government about the issuance of Reservation Certificates as ‘Shocker’.
According to data obtained through a question posed by Lone, since April 1, 2023, the Jammu region has dominated certificate issuance across nearly all categories. Scheduled Caste certificates were issued exclusively in Jammu (67,112 certificates, 100%), with none in Kashmir.
In a post on X Sajad Lone said: “The Scheduled Tribe category showed Jammu issuing 459,493 certificates (85.3%), while Kashmir issued only 79,813 (14.7%). Similar imbalances exist in the Economically Weaker Sections (92.3% Jammu, 7.7% Kashmir), Actual Line of Control (94.3% Jammu, 5.7% Kashmir), and International Border categories (100% Jammu). Even in the Reserved Backward Area category, Jammu led with 52.8% of certificates versus Kashmir’s 48.2%.”
Lone emphasised that these disparities reveal a greater loss of quotas for the Kashmiri-speaking population than previously anticipated, asserting that “the whole reservation concept is rigged against the Kashmiri-speaking population and against ST or EWS living in Kashmir.”
He said that even ST populations residing in Kashmir are disadvantaged, comprising only 15% of total applicants from the ST pool. “While RBA figures appear more balanced, when adjusted for Kashmir’s approximately 7% larger population, the region still lags behind Jammu proportionally,” he added.
Lone also criticised the committee established by the government on December 10, 2024, to address these grievances, noting that it lacks a specific timeline for submitting its report despite previous indications of a six-month deadline.
In a written reply to the query of Sajad Lone, Cabinet Minister Sakeena Itoo, the minister in-charge of social welfare, said no specific timeline has been fixed for submitting the report.
“The Cabinet Sub Committee stands constituted vide Government order No 2061-JKGAD of 2024, dated 10-12-2024 to examine the grievances projected by a section of aspirants for various posts regarding reservation rules. However, no specific timeline has been fixed for submitting the report,” the minister said in response to Lone, who had asked whether a six months time period had been granted to the panel to review the existing reservation policy.
The minister said 1,379 villages in Jammu and 1,229 villages in Kashmir have benefited under Reserved Backward Area (RBA), while 551 villages of Jammu zone have benefited under International Border category. Similarly, 268 villages in Jammu and 16 in Kashmir have benefited under Actual line of Control (ALC) category.
The government has also issued 27,420 certificates to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in Jammu division and 2,273 certificates to EWS in Kashmir valley in the past two years, effective from April 1, 2023.
