Entire concept of reservation in J-K 'rigged' against Kashmir, says People's Conference chief

Srinagar: People's Conference supremo Sajad Gani Lone on Saturday highlighted "stark regional imbalances" in issuing reservation certificates in Jammu and Kashmir and alleged the entire concept of reservation in the Union Territory was "rigged" against Kashmir.

Lone cited the data he had received in response to a question in the assembly to claim that the Jammu region dominated certificate issuances in nearly all categories from April 1, 2023.

"The data shows a vast regional disparity. It highlights stark regional imbalances in the issuance of reservation certificates across Jammu and Kashmir. The findings are a shocker," the Handwara MLA said at a press conference.

He said 100 per cent of the 67,112 Scheduled Caste (SC) certificates issued in the Union Territory had exclusively been in Jammu.

"The Scheduled Tribe (ST) category showed Jammu issuing 4,59,493 certificates (85.3 per cent) while Kashmir issued only 79,813 (14.7 per cent). Similar imbalances exist for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) -- 92.3 per cent in Jammu and 7.7 per cent in Kashmir," he said.

"For the Actual Line of Control, 94.3 per cent certificates have been issued in Jammu and only 5.7 per cent in Kashmir, and 100 per cent in Jammu for International Border categories," he added.

Even in the Reserved Backward Area category, Jammu led with 52.8 per cent of the certificates against Kashmir's 48.2 per cent, Lone alleged.

The Handwara MLA said these disparities revealed a greater loss of quotas to the Kashmiri-speaking population than previously anticipated.

"The whole reservation concept is rigged against the Kashmiri-speaking population and against STs or EWS living in Kashmir," he said.

Lone claimed even ST populations residing in Kashmir were disadvantaged, comprising only 15 per cent of total applicants from the pool.

He criticised the committee established by the Union Territory government on December 10 to address these grievances, saying it lacked a specific timeline for submitting its report despite previous indications of a six-month deadline.

"The biggest perpetrators are the officers in Kashmir who do not issue such certificates here but are issued in Jammu. Is it a policy or are they doing it on their own? I do not know," he said.

Asserting he was not against reservation, Lone said he was against the "murder of merit".

"There is a reservation of 60 per cent. But within that reservation is a much bigger scam. It is a post-dated cheque for disaster. Kashmiris not making it to the KAS (Kashmir Administrative Service) or other exams is not because they are incompetent. It is the scourge of reservation that is killing their competence," the People's Conference chief said.

"If, for example, 100 candidates appear in an exam, 60 seats are reserved. Out of that, 50.78 seats are for Jammu and 9.22 for Kashmir. So, before you apply reservation, Kashmiris have already been crowded out," he added.

He pinned the blame on all Jammu and Kashmir governments, saying this had silently carried on since 1989.

"Academically, it will take a century to undo the damage," he added.

Lone said the People's Conference would organise a seminar and invite academics to deliberate on the issue.