Whole reservation concept rigged against Kashmir: Sajad Lone

Srinagar, Mar 15: People’s Conference (PC) President and MLA Handwara, Sajad Lone, has said that the whole reservation concept was rigged against Kashmir.

In a post on X, PC President, said, “ Kashmir as region is far far behind. The net loss of quotas to Kashmiri speaking population is of a much higher scale than we had thought. The whole reservation concept is rigged against the Kashmiri speaking population and against ST or EWS living in Kashmir.”

“Even the ST population living in Kashmir is a net loser. They make up a meager 15% of the total applicants from the ST pool. RBA is almost same but when you adjust for population, it is less. Kashmir population is approximately 7% more. And areas under RBA are almost same proportionately. Yet in number terms they are behind Jammu.”

MLA Handwara Lone said that a committee set up by the government on 10 December 2024 to examine grievances related to the issue has no specific timeline for submitting a report. “We were told it is 6 months timeline,” he said.

Earlier the Jammu & Kashmir government revealed that no specific timeline has been set up for the cabinet sub-committee constituted to examine reservation rules.

Sharing the details of category certificates issued in the regions of Jammu and Kashmir from 1 April 2023, the People’s Conference leader said, “This is a shocker.” He said regionally, loss due to reservations is much higher than what was anticipated.

The category-wise details shared by the PC leader are:

Scheduled Caste (SC) Certificates: Jammu issued 67,112 certificates, accounting for 100%, while Kashmir issued none (0%).

Scheduled Tribe (ST) Certificates: Jammu issued 459,493 certificates (85.3%), whereas Kashmir issued 79,813 certificates (14.7%).

Economically Weaker Section (EWS) Certificates: Jammu issued 27,420 certificates (92.3%), while Kashmir issued 2,273 certificates (7.7%).

Actual Line of Control (ALC) Certificates: Jammu issued 268 certificates (94.3%), while Kashmir issued 16 certificates (5.7%).

International Border (IB) Certificates: Jammu issued 551 certificates (100%), whereas Kashmir issued none (0%).

Resident of Backward Area (RBA) Certificates: Jammu issued 1,379 certificates (52.8%), while Kashmir issued 1,229 certificates (48.2%).