Jammu, Dec 3 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said his government has rationalised the reservation policy in the “best possible manner” to ensure justice to all sections and fulfil a key poll promise.
However, he refused to divulge details, saying the proposal has been forwarded to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for his approval, and it would be inappropriate to comment further until the file receives his consent.
He was talking to reporters after chairing the first Cabinet meeting in Jammu since the resumption of ‘Darbar Move’, an exercise under which the government functions for six months each in Srinagar during summers and in Jammu during winters.
Reservations has become a major issue in Jammu and Kashmir following the central government’s decision to add more communities to the reserved category and expand quotas in the union territory (UT) over the past five years.
There have been growing objections to the Centre’s move to push the reservation quota to 70 per cent in the UT, following last year’s announcements introducing a separate 10 per cent reservation for Paharis and other tribes and enhancing the OBC quota to eight per cent.
The chief minister said the reservation policy was one of the 22 items on the agenda for the Cabinet meeting.
“We discussed many things like construction of the new ‘Kashmir House’ in Dwarka (Delhi), proposal of chief engineers in the roads and buildings department, and how to revive co-operative societies in a new way, besides the reservations,” Abdullah said.
On December 10 last year, the government constituted a Cabinet sub-committee to look into grievances raised by various sections of aspirants against the existing reservation policy in the UT. The sub-committee forwarded its report in October, and accordingly, the report and its review by the law department were completed.
“It would be wrong to comment on the minutes of the Cabinet meeting before sending them to the honourable LG. I will just say that we have tried to rationalise it as we have promised. We have also tried not to be unjust to anyone,” the chief minister said.
Abdullah also noted that so much time was taken because “the issue is such that it is very easy to do politics with it”.
“The Cabinet has tried to adopt a transparent and fair process. Now, the matter will go to the LG. I will not say anything more until the file reaches him. Whatever you want to believe, you can believe it. We could not have done a more detailed exercise than this.
“Every issue was seen and discussed more than once. This is the third or fourth time that the matter came to the Cabinet after the sub-committee headed by Minister Sakina Itoo submitted its report. We did our best to resolve this matter,” Abdullah said.
On the stance of the estranged National Conference Lok Sabha MP, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, on the reservation issue, the chief minister said the government did not do this for anyone’s satisfaction.
“This is not about an individual. This is about the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and we have fulfilled another election promise by completing this process,” he said.
Abdullah added that the people who were “taunting” the government, claiming it did not do anything about the reservation, are threatening protests if injustice is done to any section.
Mehdi recently asked the National Conference-led government in the UT to resolve the reservation issue before the Winter session of Parliament ends, saying he would join the quota protests if no action was taken. PTI TAS PRK PRK
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