As Chief Minister Omar Abdullah faces protests from youths and attacks from the Opposition and within his own ranks over the issue of reservations, a Cabinet Sub Committee has cleared a report that suggests changes to ensure that 50% of the seats/jobs remain available for open merit or general category students.
The report prepared by a Cabinet Sub Committee, which has been accepted by the Abdullah Cabinet, leaves the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) quotas untouched but recommends carving out additional open merit seats/jobs from the Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) and Economically Weaker Section (EWS) categories.
In March 2024, soon after Parliament brought in more groups under STs in J&K, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha amended the J&K Reservation Rules, 2005, enhancing the ST-reserved seats/jobs from 10% of the total to 20%. Alongside, reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) was also increased, with 15 new groups added to the OBC list.
This meant that total reservations increased from 43% to 70% of the total in government jobs/seats, leaving only 30% in the general category, though a majority of the J&K population falls in this category.
Youths hit the streets against the increase in quotas, with National Conference MP Aga Ruhulla Mehdi joining them against his own party’s government. Recently, he warned that he would join the protests again after Parliament’s Winter Session if there was no review of the quota policy.
Though the NC has been promising to align reservations with population figures, the Abdullah government has been wary about any rushed move which could trigger a reverse backlash from the groups whose quotas were shrunk.
A senior government official said: “The ST quotas (for ST-I and ST-II) can’t be altered as they came from Parliament. That left us few options to work with.” The Bill passed by Parliament in February 2024 created sub-classifications within STs in J&K, while including more groups to the list, as ST-I and ST-II.
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The Cabinet Sub Committee has hence proposed reallocating seats from the RBA and EWS categories, to open up more seats for the general category. The official said: “The bulk of the RBA population that came under J&K is now in Ladakh and no longer part of the Union Territory. So shifting some of these seats to open merit makes sense.”
