Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 20: A delegation of Jat Biradari led by Choudhary Manmohan Singh, president AIJMS met with Jeet Lal Gupta, chairman of State Commission for Backward Classes J&K in the presence of Advocate Omkar Seth and Prof Verinder Kumar, members of Backward Commission, to highlight the long pending demand of Jat biradari of being included in the OBC category. Choudhary Manmohan Singh informed them that the official statistics of Jat population in J&K needs to be corrected.
Over 5 lakh jats, inclusive of Hindu, Sikhs and Muslims, live in Jammu as well as Kashmir, of which their literacy rate is about 10%, considering most of them live on border areas ranging from Kathua to Poonch and Kashmir. Out of these 7-10% literate people, only 10-12% hold government jobs, mostly army and police.
Manmohan Singh informed the Backward Commission committee about the living condition of people residing on border. Due to frequent disturbances on border because of cease fire violation and counter action, these people who stay on or within close proximity of border and have agricultural lands there, they loose their lands and harvest. They have no other source of income and given the unavailability of their lands to them, their economic condition has worsened. Moreover, their children have not much access to schools. |
