SRINAGAR — PDP MLA Waheed Para on Tuesday said a “sharp regional divide” in the issuance of social category certificates between the Jammu division and Kashmir Valley has been witnessed over the past two years, which exposed a “grave breach of fairness, equality, merit and administrative impartiality”.
Para’s comments came over data shared by the revenue department to a question he raised in the Assembly.
In reply to his query, the government said 69,704 Scheduled Caste (SC) certificates have been issued in the Jammu region, compared to 474 in the Kashmir Valley, which equals a percentage of 99.2 per cent in Jammu and 0.67 per cent in Kashmir.
The minister in-charge of the revenue department said that while 5,25,778 (87.2 per cent) Scheduled Tribe (ST) certificates have been issued in Jammu, 76,656 (12.7 per cent) were issued in Kashmir.
For the OBC category, 43,438 (56.6 per cent) certificates were issued in Jammu, and 33,226 (43.4 per cent) in Kashmir, the reply said.
Similarly, 18,945 (88.5 per cent) certificates for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) were issued in the Jammu region, as against 2,441 (11.4 per cent) in the Valley.
Under the Resident of Backward Areas (RBA) category, 15,595 (32.9 per cent of the total) certificates were issued for people in Jammu, while 31,804 (67.1 per cent) were issued for those in Kashmir, the reply said.
Under the Actual Line of Control (ALC) category, Jammu got 2,796 (85.2 per cent) certificates against Kashmir’s 484 (14.7 per cent), it said.
Para said the data reveals “a sharp regional divide in certificate issuance over the last two years”.
“These figures lay bare a stark regional disparity in the distribution of social category certificates, exposing a grave breach of fairness, equality, merit and administrative impartiality at the very core of J-K’s welfare framework,” the MLA from Pulwama said.
This is “precisely why we have been calling for the rationalisation of the reservation policy, strictly in proportion to the population”, he said. — (PTI)