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| Azad doles out sops on Gujjars, Paharis | | | ET REPORTER
Jammu, July 31
The Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has offered best of the world to the politically sensitive communities of Gujjars and Paharis as he reviewed problems of these people evenly spread across Jammu and Kashmir.
Maintaining a sequence of balance, Azad chaired meetings of both Pahari and Gujjar advisory boards one after the other in a series in Srinagar where he offered to the both communities the best he can do.
For Gujjars, the Chief Minister has approved creation of a separate directorate for tribal affairs in Jammu & Kashmir, besides announcing up-gradation of 100 primary schools located in Gujjar and Bakerwal populated areas in the state. The to-be created department shall be headed by a director who would be moving with darbar every six months, besides two deputy directors, one each for Kashmir and Jammu province. The department would function under the overall supervision of the Secretary, Social Welfare.
The Chief Minister said Gujjars and Bakerwals had suffered neglect in the past and that he wanted to undo the injustice. He said the community had played a great role in economic and social life of the state but had suffered much during the long turmoil as its members could not go to the highland pastures for feeding their livestock, the mainstay of their economic activities. He assured the community that the coalition government would do everything possible to ensure that they marched ahead with other communities in matters of development.
When informed that two candidates from the scheduled tribe had been selected from open category for the prestigious IAS and IPS cadre this year, the Chief Minister said that he would write to the Prime Minister and request him to have them allotted to Jammu & Kashmir cadre.
For Pahari speaking people, the Chief Minister said that as part of government's emphasis on self employment, Government would impart training in various trades to 20, 000 Pahari speaking youth to enable them earn their livelihood without depending on government jobs.
He said that a committee of senior officers will formulate a scheme for imparting training to Pahari youth for enhancing their employability in the job market. He said besides fully utilizing available infrastructure in all the 47 Industrial Training Institutes of the State, additional facilities could be created to accomplish the task in a time bound manner. He said training could be imparted in two shifts to increase the intake capacity.
The Chief Minister asked Development Authorities of Srinagar and Jammu to provide free of cost land for construction of all-in-one Bhawans in Srinagar and Jammu to accommodate State Advisory Board offices of Gujjar and Bakerwals, Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Castes and head offices of State Women Development Corporation and Director Tribal Welfare. He also said the Bhawans should have an auditorium also. He said allocation for pre-matric scholarships for Pahari speaking students would be increased to cover more number. Likewise, he said the amount of post-matric scholarship for the community students would also be increased. He asked the social welfare department to submit a proposal for the increase.
In response to a proposal for cultural exchange of Pahari speaking people across the LoC, the Chief Minister welcomed the idea and said that the Working Group set up by Prime Minister had also made this recommendation. The Secretary, Academy of Art, Culture & Languages said that he had received a letter from his counterpart in the PoK intimating that a group of 13 to 14 writers of the languages spoken there including Pahari, Gojri, Kashmiri and Punjabi would like to visit Kashmir . He said the matter had been taken up by the President, Cultural Academy with the ministry of external affairs and a response was awaited. He said last year, at least 5 writers from PoK had visited J&K on their own. He said a visit of writers and intellectuals from this side was also being contemplated.
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