The Government has said that the amendments approved by the State Administrative Council (SAC) will not bring West Pakistan Refugees under the scope of permanent residency.
An official handout read, “These amendments do not affect who is covered as a Permanent Resident. They do not bring West Pakistan Refugees under the scope of permanent residency. In the case of IB, only permanent residents will be able to get the benefits of this extension of reservation benefits as applicable to LOC residents.”
The handout further added the following:
1) Amending the JK Reservation Act through an Ordinance to add the words “and International Border” after the word “LAC” so that the benefits of reservation available to residents of LAC are extended to IB. This would benefit residents in Jammu, Samba, Kathua.
2) Through a Presidential Order, apply the 77th Constitutional Amendment 1995 to J&K. This would give the benefit of reservation in promotion to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in government service.
3) Through a Presidential Order, apply the 103rd Constitutional Amendment 2019 to J&K. This would give the benefit of 10% reservation to Economically Weaker Sections among the general category people.
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These were recommended by the SAC in it’s meeting last week to the Union Government.
There is no other change in any matter.
On Feb 28th, The Union Cabinet amended a clause of the Article 370, which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, for giving reservation in promotion benefits to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and approved State Government proposals to accord 10 percent reservations to Economically Weaker Sections among General categories and three percent reservations to the people living on the International Border (IB) along with the people of Line of Control (LoC) in Government jobs and educational institutions.
