Centre redefines domicile rule for J&K

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: The Centre has reset the domicile policy of Jammu and Kashmir nearly eight months after pushing through provisions stripping it of its special status and converting it into a Union territory (UT), and immediately triggered protests by Kashmiri political parties that it discriminated against the people of the erstwhile state.

According to the policy notified by the Union home ministry, any person who has stayed in Jammu and Kashmir for 15 years or studied in the region for seven years and appeared in the Class 10/12 examination will be eligible to call it his or her domicile, or permanent home.

What it means is that anyone who meets the criteria would be eligible for appointment to junior posts in the bureaucracy and the constabulary in the UT. The domicile rule would apply for recruitment to all posts that come with a basic salary of Rs 25,500. The government order said children of officials belonging to the central government, its autonomous bodies, All India

Services, public sector industrial units and banks, central universities and recognized research institutes who have served in J&K for 10 years will also be considered to be domiciled in the UT.

Children of J&K residents who reside outside the UT because of employment, business or other professional reasons will also get domicile if their parents fulfil the eligibility criteria to get a domicile certificate.

›

Insult is heaped on injury when we see the law offers none of the protections that had been promised.

OMAR ABDULLAH, NC vice-prez