The State Government is contemplating to vest the Jammu Kashmir Commission for the Backward Classes with more powers and functional assignments and in this connection a proposal is reported to be under active consideration. The aim is to get rid of political compulsions of different hue that come in between periodic reviewing of the areas notified as Reserved Backward Area even after a long period of ten years which normally is too long to take no initiative of the sort in the matter. The necessary amendments in the relevant laws are necessary to bring the Commission in tune with the changed classification of the Backward Areas on the basis of periodic revisions. Hence Section 11 of the JK SCBC Act needs to be revisited for the purpose.
The idea is that the Commission must have the powers to exclude the areas which due to various reasons cease to be the Reserved Backward Areas (RBA) in respect of development but still wear the cap of the reservation and enjoy the benefits under it. It defies the logic and the tenets of justice that areas which used to be enjoying benefits under the classification , now having come up comparatively developed should continue to be kept classified as backward thus defeating the very logic and denying other areas that could be identified as backward.
No political compulsions or pressures of any sort should receive any response in contravention of the classification norms which as per the provisions of the Act must be reviewed periodically with intent to exclude such pockets and de-notify those from the “Protected List” which have attained comparative development levels.
We appreciate the decision of the State Government to move ahead in this regard as it was not only much desired but was overdue as well. It is a small daring step which can help other neglected backward pockets to reap the benefits of their being enlisted in the reservation list to see and feel the economic and social development. The benefit of reservation, we reiterate, must be given only to those areas which deserve it the most.
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