Excelsior Correspondent
POONCH, Mar 24: Reiterating his demand of reserving Rajouri-Anantnag Lok Sabha seat for Gujjars, prominent Gujjar leader and intellectual, Shamsheer Hakla Poonchi said this will in real sense ensure political empowerment to the ST people of JK UT.
Terming the grant of reservations to Schedule Tribes a historic step taken by Narendra Modi Government at Centre, Shamsheer Hakla Poonchi a prominent Gujjar leader and intellectual today said this way a great anomaly done with this Tribe has been done away with by the present Government.
Talking to a group of members of Gujjar and Bakerwal community here, today he said that one Parliamentary seat be also reserved for the community in the Union Territory (UT). In this regard he demanded that the Rajouri-Poonch Anantnag Lok Sabha seat be reserved for Gujjar and Bakerwal Tribe under ST status norms as a huge population of ST community resides in this constituency. Hakla said with this step of Government the Gujjars and Bakerwals of the J&K UT can get a representation in the Parliament as well which is their right as per the norms under the constitution.
Hakla said that the members of the community live in 20 districts of the UT mainly in hilly and border areas and they have remained neglected for the decades together due to which majority of them is living in abject poverty and backwardness.
He said though GOI had given the ST status to Gujjars and Bakerwals of J&K in 1991 for their upliftment and betterment but the successive J&K Governments deprived them of this right. Hakla said that due to indifferent attitude of successive Governments in J&K the community was deprived of political rights.
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