The Union Government on Thursday decided to amend a clause of the contentious Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu & Kashmir, by approving promulgation of an Ordinance for giving reservation benefits to the SCs and STs in the State. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
"It will serve the purpose of application of relevant provisions of the Constitution of India, as amended through the Constitution (Seventy Seventh Amendment) Act, 1995 and Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019 for Jammu and Kashmir, by issuing the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Amendment Order, 2019 by the President under clause (1) of Article 370," Jaitley said.
After the President notifies the Ordinance, the Scheduled Castes, Schedule Tribes, will get the benefit of quota in educational institutions and public employment in addition to the existing reservation in Jammu & Kashmir. The Ordinance also extends the 10 per cent reservation to the economically weaker section among the general category.
The amendment also brings persons residing in the areas adjoining International Border within the ambit of the reservation.
Meanwhile, the Government has decided to ban separatist group Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for alleged anti-national and subversive activities.
A notification on the ban was issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) after a high-level meeting on security, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Union Cabinet also approved the promulgation of an Ordinance to allow voluntary use of Aadhaar as identity proof for opening bank account and procuring mobile phone connection.
The Ordinance was necessitated as a Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on January 4 but pending in the Rajya Sabha, would have lapsed with the dissolution of the current Lok Sabha. The Ordinance will now give the effect to the changes in the Aadhaar Act such as giving a child an option to exit from the biometric ID programme on attaining 18 years of age.