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| UPA pushing the frustrated Jammu youth to the wall | | 12-Point Package For K Youth | | Rustam
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 29: Congress-led UPA Government is all out to push the already rather frustrated and abandoned Jammu youth to the wall in its desperate bid to identify itself completely with the already over-empowered, over-represented and over-appeased Kashmir and its privileged youth. In effect, the UPA Government has devised a policy that makes invidious, humiliating and unjust distinctions between the already over-represented Kashmiri youth in the service sector and technical and professional institutions and the rather neglected and the rigorously excluded Jammu youth.
It is no more a secret that the rate of unemployment in Kashmir is less than 30 per cent, as against over 69 per cent in Jammu and that Kashmiri youth occupy all or nearly all the seats available in the Kashmir-based technical and professional institutions and universities, besides occupying bulk of the seats available in the similar institutions, based in Jammu province. That the UPA Government has turned extremely biased in favour of the Kashmiri youth and that it has no space whatsoever in its scheme of things for the Jammu youth could be seen from what Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Ashwani Kumar announced in Kashmir University on May 26. He announced a 12-point multi-crore package for the Kashmiri youth. The package, according to Sharma, “is a multi-pronged initiative to lead the state (read Kashmir) to a road to peace.”
Announcing the package, Sharma said that the UPA Government took this step to “strengthen their emotional bond with the rest of India. The programme for awareness about science and technology is being run in whole of India. But I chose Kashmir University for announcing first such programme because the youth here have been suffering due to the violence over the years. They are feeling depressed. I want to give youth in Kashmir the message that the whole of India is with you. We want the youth of Kashmir to become a vital part of the India’s futuristic developmental programme.”
The package, among other things, provides for the encouragement to University (read Kashmir University) groups interested in specific research programme to apply under scheme called “respond”; establishment of “centre of excellence in atmospheric sciences”; creation of “opportunities for students (in Kashmir) interested in the research areas of astronomy and atmospheric sciences and planetary sciences”; elevation of the “Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology to a ‘model university’ for mountain agricultural education and research”; and “international fellowships.” Sharma also announced that the UPA Government “has decided an annual grant of Rs 200 crore to Kashmir for next five years.” “It is comprehensive programme to help the youth of Kashmir in getting employment in big corporate houses and institutions. I am here to offer total commitment of the UPA Government towards Kashmir. We are committed to give Kashmiri youth role of prominence in the development of India. His ministry has estimated a pool of 23,000 graduates and post-graduates, including 4500 diploma engineers in Kashmir. They will be involved in the programme,” Sharma said while further explaining the implications of the 12-point package for Kashmiri youth.
The Jammu youth is not opposed to the Kashmiri youth. The Jammu youth want the Kashmiri youth to obtain what they legitimately deserve as part and parcel of the state. What the Jammu youth opposed to is a preferential and differential treatment for those who already swamp the public offices and technical and professional institutions and universities in the state; the Jammu youth simply want parity with the Kashmiri youth.
The UPA Government needs to review its stand on the Jammu youth vis-à-vis Kashmiri youth. It is the need of the time. You just cannot have two yardsticks, one for the already rather privileged Kashmiri youth and another for the left-in-the-lurch Jammu youth. Such policies do create serious problems. However, the question to be asked is: What were the Jammu-based Congress ministers doing when the UPA Government was contemplating a major, major concessions for the Kashmiri youth ignoring the legitimate claims of the neglected and suffering Jammu youth?
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