news details |
|
|
| Gujjars oppose ST status to Pahari-speaking people | | | Early Times Reporter
Srinagar | Nov 28
A Gujjar organisation in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday strongly opposed the Pahari-speaking peoples' demand for ST status and warned the state government against any such move.
"Paharis have neither been defined as a weaker section nor have they approached any of the commissions set up to look into the issue of reservations from time to time," Gujjar Bakerwal Joint Forum (GBJF) said here.
"Such class of people has neither been defined in any work of history, anthropology or census, nor even mentioned in revenue records," it added.
Disputing paharis claim for ST status, the GBJF said that the 'paharis' being an affluent class did not suffer from any social stigma which was the most important criteria to declare a particular class as Scheduled Tribe.
Arguing that dialect or language was not the criteria to accord ST status to a particular section of people, the forum said that the demand of the pahari-speaking people was based on the premise of language.
The Forum has also sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shivraj Patil, claiming that some people with vested interests were trying to accord tribal status to pahari-language for grabbing benefits to which only tribal people are entitled to. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
