Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 2: All J&K Gujjar Bakerwal Co-ordination Committee (AJKGBCC) has strongly opposed Sheduled Tribe status to Paharis.
Talking to media person during the protest at Panama Chowk here today members of the Coordination Committee expressed resentment over the move of the Central Govt to grant ST status to Paharis. The leaders of Co-ordination Committee said that the developments for sometimes and reports in a section of print and social media all indicate that the non-existent Paharis and their self-styled leaders having connections at right places in the J&K establishment and in the Central Government have joined hands to convince the authorities in J&K and New Delhi to their spurious and unjustifiable claim to Scheduled Tribe (ST) Status, so that they could share the benefits the tribals, including Gujjars, Bakerwals, Gadis and Sippis, have been getting since April 1991.
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They said the Tribals got ST status after decades of a relentless struggle and got reservation in Government employment and educational institutions. The Gujjar leaders said that the non-existent Paharis were granted 39% reservation under various categories under J&K Reservation Rules right from 1994 till date. The Paharis do not constitute a tribe and don’t deserve ST status. It is established beyond any shadow of doubt that the conspirators are all out to jeopardize the legitimate rights and interests of the tribals and render them unreal and ineffective socially, educationally, economically and politically and create pre-1991 situation and all this is utterly unacceptable to us.
Anwar Choudhary (Adv), Convener of the Coordination Committee said various Commissions and Committees appointed by the successive Governments in J&K, not even once referred to the non-existent Paharis as a tribal group. Similarly, the census reports of 1941, 1961, 1971, 1981, to mention only a few, also didn’t refer to the so-called Paharis as a distinct tribal group, he said, adding that the BJP-led NDA too in 2002 rejected outrightly the unjustifiable claim of the so-called Paharis to ST status, saying the laid down rules didn’t allow any such status to them.
Dismissing their claim to the ST status, the leaders of various Gujjar- Bakerwals organizations said that the entire UT of J&K, barring parts of Kathua and Samba districts in Jammu, is hilly and mountainous, and asked how could the well-entrenched so-called Paharis demand ST status for such people inhabiting only the Poonch-Rajouri border belt in Jammu and parts of Kupwara and Baramulla districts in Kashmir where the tribals are more numerous put forth such a mischievous demand.
AJKGBCC urged PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to reject the demand of the non-existent Paharis seeking ST status and reassured the fullest possible support to the tribals Gujjar & Bakerwal as guaranteed under the constitution of India.
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