Senior BJP leader Ashwani Kumar Chrungoo on Wednesday said scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A has necessitated formulation of new set of laws and rules for recruitment in Union Territory of J&K.
“Somepoliticians and activists, who have not yet come out of the hangover of specialstatus need some more time to reconcile to the new political realities. Itincludes those leaders, and their followers, who were under detention for thepast six to eight months after the August 5 developments,” he said in astatement, referring to the new domicile order issued by the government lastweek.
Hesaid the gazette notification on the domicile order was “silent on a veryimportant and an integral section of J&K society.”
“It becomes our moral dutyto express our concerns in this regard and espouse the rightful claim of thepeople who otherwise should have been ordinarily included in the notificationas the fifth category of the domiciled people of J&K,” said Chrungoo.
He said people have beentravelling outside J&K for education, business, jobs and other assignments.
Sometimes they would come back and live and settle there once again. However, since 1947, the time of our independence, this process did not stop. The original inhabitants and the hereditary residents who possessed the certificate of state subject of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state continue to live outside Jammu and Kashmir in many parts of India and the world. Since they are not in a position to prove their stay of 15 years in the state, hence they are not covered by the new law on Domicile.
Similarly, most of them are also not registered as migrants with the office of Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner. In such a situation, this vast chunk of our brethren belonging to Jammu and Kashmir cease to be the domicile, though they possess the hereditary state subject certificate as well,” said Chrungoo.
“I raised this issue with the official representative of the PMO and the government of India, a few days ago and it needed to be pursued further,” he said. “As per a rough estimate, there are half a million of such people living all round the world since 1947 and they originally belong to the divisions of Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh.
All such people among them who possess valid state subject certificates of J&K, the progeny of their blood and the daughters-in-law in their families have a natural and legal right to claim the domicile status, irrespective of whether they are included in the notification or not,” he said, urging the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Home Affairs to review the new law in this perspective.