National Conference Provincial President, Devender Singh Rana on Saturday demanded exclusive right over government jobs and “class-1 domicile” status for the “permanent residents” of J&K. In a statement here, Rana demanded “exclusive rights over the government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir for the permanent residents as per the law enacted by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1927”, saying they should be granted the status of class-1 domicile in the new domicile law.
“The Centre should also restore the statehood to Jammu andKashmir,” he said. Rana said that though this was not the opportune time forpolitics in view of the outbreak of coronavirus, “yet we feel constrained toraise our concerns.”
Strongly pitching for the statehood, the NC ProvincialPresident said: “The downgrading of the state into Union Territory has hadpsychological fallout on the people, the inheritors of largest state carved outby Maharaja Gulab Singh”.
He, as per the statement, stressed the need for “coursecorrection” in the anomaly by restoring the statehood and holding of immediateelections so that the people become masters of their own destiny, as enshrinedin the democratic ethos of the country.
“Hold elections and let the people of Jammu and Kashmir taketheir own decisions like fellow citizens in rest of the country,” Rana added.The NC Provincial President expressed concern over the issuance of recentdomicile laws and said this is not in consonance with the urges and aspirationsof the people, especially the educated unemployed youth, who are in the stateof despondency due to burgeoning unemployment problem.
“Instead of addressing to their concerns and undertakingfast-track recruitment for the whopping number of vacancies, attempts are beingmade to generate unnecessary uncertainties,” he said and cautioned against”testing their patience, as they are genuinely feeling pushed to the wall”.
Referring to the announcement of the former Governor lastyear with regard to filling up of over 50,000 vacancies in three months, hesaid no follow-up action has been made thus far.
“This is a worrisome situation for all”, he said whileurging the government to expedite the recruitment process in fair andtransparent manner and also generate avenues of employment to address theproblem.
He said the Jammu and Kashmir youth have nowhere to goexcept the government sector in the absence of organized corporate sector andtherefore a way out should be to provide jobs, especially as most of thequalified youth are at the brink of crossing the age prescribed for governmentjobs. Rana sought a pragmatic job policywith stress on undertaking the process in a time-bound manner, the statementsaid.