Task likely to be completed in extended term
*Large number of claims received from many areas
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Nov 6: The Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes which got another extension of six months in September is working on recommendations for reservation to Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) and inclusion/exclusion of some castes/communities in other categories.
The Commission headed by Justice (Retd) GD Sharma and comprising Rup Lal Bharti and Munir Khan was constituted in March 2020 and will be completing its extended term in March 2024 unless granted further extension by the Government if asked for by the Panel.
“The Commission has received some representations for inclusion/exclusion from different categories of reservation which are being examined,” the sources said.
It is also working on inclusion of more areas under the ambit of RBA category and exclusion of some areas which got developed over a period of time. This exercise, as per the sources, is being done carefully and the Commission is confident that it might be completed by March next year when its extended term will expire.
However, if the Government gives another mandate to the Commission, its term can be further extended.
RBA category had 20 percent reservation in Jammu and Kashmir which was later brought down to 10 percent following uproar that influential persons including politicians have got included their villages in the RBA category to avail benefits of reservation in Government jobs and educational institutions.
The Commission had invited representations from people in support of their claims for inclusion of their areas as backward. It has already received large number of claims from the people for inclusion as RBA and is studying all of them based on criteria fixed for declaration of any area as backward.
As per the sources, a number of villages which were earlier declared as backward, have developed over the years as review of the areas wasn’t carried out for past quite some time.
The Commission is likely to recommend exclusion of such villages from the list of backward. In their place, it could include the villages which are genuinely backward but hadn’t been included in the list of RBA.
Reservation of RBA is likely to be reduced further, the sources said.
Based on the Commission’s recommendations, the Centre introduced three bills in the Parliament in July for restructuring reservation in Jammu & Kashmir.
These bills seek recognition of new groups as Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes and rechristening of Social Castes category in J&K as Other Backward Classes.
The Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 pushes for inclusion of Pahari community, Paddaris, Gadda Brahman and Koli tribes in ST list, while the Constitution (Jammu and Kashmir) Scheduled Castes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023, seeks addition of the Valmiki community in the Scheduled Castes category.
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