Bill To Grant

Jammu & Kashmir.

The ST Bill also includes Gadda Brahman, Koli and Paddari communities to the ST list of Jammu and Kashmir. The house was adjourned for the day soon after the two Bills were passed.

The Bills will now be taken up in the Rajya Sabha for consideration and passage. These Bills were passed nearly seven months after they were introduced in the Lok Sabha. The Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 26 last year.

The announcement to grant ST status to Pahari Ethnic Group was made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during public rallies in Baramulla and Rajouri in October 2022.

The grant of ST status would make Paharis eligible for all benefits available to ST category in Jammu and Kashmir. The Paharis are in majority in Nowshera, Kalakote-Sunderbani, Rajouri, Thanmandi, Surankote, Poonch-Haveli, Mendhar, Uri and Karnah assembly segments of J&K.

Notably, Paharis have been fighting for more than three decades for their inclusion in the Schedule Tribe (ST) category.

The inclusion of these communities in the list of Scheduled Tribes in Jammu and Kashmir will have absolutely no impact on the current level of reservations available to the existing Scheduled Tribe communities such as Gujjars and Bakarwals. They will continue to get reservations like before, said the government in an official handout.

“Reservation to the newly listed Scheduled Tribes will be provided in such a manner that it does not cause any harm to the communities which are already listed as Scheduled Tribes. After the Bill is passed by the Parliament, the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will issue necessary notifications on reservation, which will ensure that the people included in the existing list of Scheduled Tribes continue to get the same level of reservation,” it added. (NC) demanded that the polls in the Union territory be held soon.

He said the central government should have decided on the polls before the Supreme Court had to intervene in the matter.

The top court had a few months back asked the Election Commission to hold assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir by September this year.

Masoodi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Monday said his government would take big decisions. Polls in the Union territory should be held before other big ticket decisions are taken, Masoodi said.

Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra intervened to point out that local bodies’ elections were held in the erstwhile state.

Participating in the debate, TMC leader Saugata Roy also referred to the Supreme Court observation and pitched for early assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

On August 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir was made a Union territory with a provision for a legislative assembly after the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which accorded special status to the erstwhile state.

Supriya Sule of the NCP demanded a timeline and “not a vague” answer from the government on holding assembly polls and giving statehood to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

She said while the Election Commission will decide on the date, the government could at least give a tentative timeline for holding the democratic exercise.

BJP member from Jammu and Kashmir Jugal Kishore Sharma said the bill would ensure justice to OBCs.

Chinta Anuradha of the YSRCP said this was a progressive legislation and would help streamline the election process in the local bodies, including panchayats.

Shiv Sena member Pratap Jadhav, Navneet Rana (Ind), Kaushalendra Kumar (JD-U), Ramesh Bidhuri (BJP), Veeraswamy Kalanidhi (DMK), N K Premachandran (RSP), Ve Vaithilingam and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (both Congress) also participated in the debate.