The Centre’s decision to reverse its Tuesday night order notifying a new domicile status for Jammu & Kashmir reflects a realisation that it needed to take political parties together for maintaining long-term normalcy in the Union Territory.
As per the latest order, all jobs in Jammu & Kashmir will be for those who stayed in the area for at least 15 years.
The Centre was forced to withdraw its order following angry response from Jammu & Kashmir-based political parties, including National Conference (NC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and newly formed Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party.
The State unit of the BJP too had briefed top brass of the party after receiving brick bats from common masses over ignoring their genuine concerns while drafting the rules defining the domicile status and granting reservation in jobs meant only for fourth class employees.
An official said that swift response from the Centre was meant to win hearts and minds of the people of Jammu & Kashmir especially at a time when the Centre has already initiated political process with the setting up of delimitation commission.
“Any person who fulfils the following conditions shall be a domicile of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir for the purposes of appointment to any post under the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir,” said the revised notification titled as Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Adaptation of State Laws) Order-2020.
“....no person shall be eligible for appointment to any post unless he is a domicile of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir,” the amended Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment) Act, which is a part of the notification, said.
Government officials and BJP leaders are tightlipped on this fiasco, while many Hindu hardliners in the Jammu blamed the Centre and the BJP for the U-turn in just two days. Section of State BJP leaders had flagged the issue before the party high command in private and sighted numerous examples of unrest among large sections of society including unemployed youth awaiting filling up of 50,000 vacancies.
The NC in statement said that the reversal order is just “cosmetic” urging “Delhi must stop toying around with J&K.” The PDP accused the BJP of playing dangerous games in the Valley in its bid to change the demography.
“The way in which the Union Government proclaimed a new job and domicile policy for the erstwhile State now clearly indicates people at the helm of affairs in New Delhi are dealing with Jammu & Kashmir very casually and without application of mind,” said the PDP.
“It’s high time the people of J&K get to decide the laws that will govern them rather than being subjected to the whims and fancies of the Centre where orders are issued in the morning and changes to the same order issued in the evening. Restore statehood, conduct elections,” said Omar Abdullah.
Omar again tweeted: “Delhi made a mistake notifying the domicile rules during this time of crisis & I made a mistake getting sucked into this debate at a time when it’s wrong to let politics distract from the #COVID19 fight. I haven’t spoken my mind about 5/8/2019 yet but I will when this is over.”
In the April 1 notification, the jobs were reserved only up to group 4 in the Government, which is equivalent to the rank of constable in police parlance and multi-tasking staff in Government offices.
Under the domicile law, anyone who has resided for 15 years in Jammu & Kashmir or has studied for seven years and appeared in Class 10 and Class 12 examinations in an educational institution located in the Union Territory is a domicile. Anyone who is registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants) will also be deemed to be a domicile. The children of all-India services personnel, who have served there for 10 years, also come under the category.
Others who can be deemed to be a domicile include the children of those Central Government officials, all-India services officers, officials of PSU and autonomous bodies of the Central Government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, Central university officials and those of recognised research institutes of the Central Government, who have served in Jammu & Kashmir for 10 years.