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| Need to reform the system to keep the state intact | | Unrest in Jammu | | Neha
JAMMU, Apr 15: A sense of despondency and frustration, coupled with an extreme form of anger, has gripped people of Jammu province. The reason: The ruling coalition has utterly failed to address the issues facing them. There is widespread discontent and disaffection among all in the state, except within a limited circle of people who are at the helm of affairs and those close to corridors of power, besides sections of bureaucracy and mafia, including land mafia. Democracy exists in the state but only in name. Rule of law and fundamental rights have no place in the scheme of things of the ruling coalition. Corruption is deep rooted and administration handed down to the people is neither responsive nor accountable. Local-self governing institutions, including the elected panchayats, have been rendered unreal for all practical purposes, as NC-Congress coalition did not adopt 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments. It's anarchy that has been reigning supreme in the state. The political and constitutional institutions have been undermined and those at the helm have been misusing them to promote their vested interests, thus leaving the general masses high and dry. Not a single institution is functioning, as they have been vitiated and manipulated. Unemployment problem is acute. Discrimination with Jammu province and Ladakh region at all levels and in all spheres, besides several religious and ethnic minorities in the state, has assumed alarming proportions. The youth of the state constitutes the most dissatisfied and frustrated lot because of lack of employment opportunities. The problem of unemployment is more acute in Jammu province where the rate of unemployment is over 69 per cent, as against Kashmir's less than 30 per cent. The youth of Jammu have been urging the NC-Congress coalition fill the 80,000 posts but with no result. With the result, talented and highly qualified youth, especially from Jammu and Ladakh, are migrating to other places in search of jobs.
A number of social and under-privileged sections of society in Jammu province are seething with anger because they do not enjoy the rights their counterparts in the rest of the country exercise. The plight of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), including Jat community, refugees from West Pakistan, daughters of Jammu and Kashmir, internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus, Sikhs and sections of Muslim society is all the more miserable. In J&K, the SCs are entitled to only 8 per cent reservation in Government services and educational and technical institutions, as against 15 per cent reservation their counterparts get in the rest of the country. They have been struggling since long to achieve parity with their counterparts, but with no result. The OBCs are entitled to 27 per cent reservation in the vital service sector and educational and professional institutions across the country, barring J&K. The OBCs in J&K do not get even one per cent reservation in any sector. According to one estimate, the OBCs constitute nearly 20 per cent of the State's population. STs, including Gaddis, Sippis, Gujjars and Bakerwals are not exercising rights which are available to their counterparts in other parts of country. Gujjars and Bakerwals do get some reservation in Government jobs and educational institutions, but the hapless and highly backward Gaddis, Sippis and Kohlis - all Hindus --don't. This has caused resentment among them. Jammu province houses more than one lakh refugees from West Pakistan.
They migrated in 1947 in the wake of the communal partition of India to escape the wrath of votaries of two-nation. They have been doing all that they could to obtain citizenship rights so that they could also lead a dignified life as Indian citizens, but nothing has come out of their relentless struggle. Similarly, refugees from POJK, whose number is almost one million, have not got the compensation from the properties they left behind. The border migrants are also facing serious problems, as a sense of insecurity has gripped them.
Daughters of J&K did achieve a partial victory in 2005, when the two-Judge bench of the J&K High Court upheld the PIL in their favour and directed the J&K Government not to make any endorsement of "Valid Till Marriage" on the State Subject Certificates to be issued to the daughters of the State. The BJP had approached the High Court twice. But their demand that the children of the daughters of the State married outside the State to non-State Subjects and their spouses be given property and residency rights in the State has not been considered by the authorities. The matter is pending before J&K High Court since long. The State Subject laws make invidious and humiliating distinctions between the daughters of J&K married outside and their children but make no distinction between them if the daughters of the state are married within the state to the so-called State Subjects.
Kashmiri Hindus, who migrated from the Valley in early 1990 to escape their physical liquidation and save their religion, culture and honour at the hands of the secessionists and fanatics, continue to suffer even after 24 years of their forced exodus. Bulk of them wants to go back to their original habitat, but they cannot because the situation in the Valley has not improved even slightly since then. In fact, it has worsened. As a result, they are chaffing and seething with anger. Many Sikh and Muslims had also migrated from Kashmir to escape the wrath of radical forces and they are facing problems.
But these constitute only a few of the several such instances which serve to prove that things are in a very bad shape in Jammu province. Anything can happen here anytime, as the patience of the people of this province is ending very fast. The authorities must take cognizance of the state of things in Jammu province before it is too late. They have to change the existing system and hand down one that empowers all the above-referred to social groups. The best option is the reorganization of the state polity on a regional basis. |
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