Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 13: Sikh Progressive Front (SPF) has urged the BJP led Government at the Centre to stop discrimination against Sikh community.
Talking to media-persons here today, Balvinder Singh president of the Front along with general secretary Manjit Singh and Harmohinder Singh (President DKSC) expressed deep concern regarding the step motherly treatment in respect of micro minority Sikh community of the J&K UT.
They alleged that during recent past the existing UT Administration and the earlier BJP-PDP alliance have been discriminating against the Sikh community in all the spheres, depriving the community of the benefits from the Government, which the Sikh community also fully deserved.
They pointed out that the PDP-BJP Government during 2017 deprived non-migrant Kashmiris/ Sikhs of the benefit of special recruitment. By amending the recruitment rules, it was mentioned that Kashmiri migrants means `Kashmiri Pandits’, thus deprived the non-migrant Kashmir Sikh community youth of the benefits of special recruitment. Many Sikh families did not migrate and stayed in Kashmir to face the situation despite peak militancy.
They further alleged that no Sikh member has been inducted in the Public Service Commission. Despite demand raised by many Sikh organizations, the J&K UT Administration did not take cognizance of the matter. They said that once again, the community was totally neglected when Punjabi language was not included in the JK Officials Language Bill 2020 although large population of not only Sikhs but non-Sikhs also used to speak Punjabi in J&K. This speaks of discrimination against Sikh community, they maintained.
The recent discriminatory decision was taken by the All India Council for Technical Education where youth of non-migrant Kashmiri Pandits/ Kashmiri Hindu families were given concession in Higher Education Institutions in the country but unfortunately Non-migrant Kashmiri Sikhs were excluded. The Sikhs are feeling betrayed. The Front leaders urged upon the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to personally intervene and stop this discriminatory attitude towards Sikhs.
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