Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 4: The Jammu and Kashmir Batwal Welfare Association president and former National Conference MLA Satpaul Lakhotra has urged upon the Prime Minister to provide special package to the Batwal community of the State.
In a meeting of the Association held at Chack Lal Din today, the former MLA strongly projected the issue of his community, seeking special package from the Government. A large number of Batwal Community members attended the programme.
Mr Lakhotra while stressing upon the community members to maintain unity, said that it is impossible to achieve the desired results for the welfare of the community if all are divided in groups. Raising the burning issues of the Batwal Community, Lakhotra stated that since independence, both the Union and the State Governments have taken care of all the communities in the State but the Batwal community (which stands recognised as ‘Scheduled Caste Community’ in terms of Article 341 of the Constitution of India), has remained ignored and is lagging behind in all respects. He said that the Batwal community has not so far been given representation in the J&K Legislative Council and in important Government institutions.
The NC leader further stated that in 1994, the Govt of India with an object to ameliorate the living standard of the Batwal community members, had launched an ethnographic study to assess their socio, economic and cultural life in the J&K State. The field work, as laid down by the Planning Commission, started in about forty villages of Jammu region, got completed by the end of April, 1994.
Thereafter, the then Deputy Registrar General, India visited the State and exchanged the views with the elite of Batwal Community to explore the ethnographic/anthropological back ground and other related details and also collected the Survey report from the Directorate of Census Operations, J&K but even after passage of 22 years, nothing substantial has been done by the Union Government for Batwal Community, Lakhotra added.
Prominent among others who attended the meeting included Capt (Retd) Om Parkash Tugga, Capt (Retd) Kamal Chand Motan, Thoru Ram, Romesh Sargotra, Baldev Chand Sandhu, Rashpal Chand, Uttam Chand ML Motan and Des Raj Kaith.
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