The UT Cabinet will meet in Srinagar today evening with Cabinet Sub Committee (CSC) report on Reservation on agenda among other issues. The CSC report finalized on June 10 will be discussed and a view will be taken on how to proceed on the sensitive issue.
The Cabinet meeting scheduled for 6 PM at Civil Secretariat in Srinagar will be chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. There are only five Ministers in the Cabinet other than the Chief Minister and three of them were members of the CSC including Health and Medical Education, Education and Social Welfare Minister Sakina Itoo, PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control and Forest Minister Javed Rana and Minister for Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs and Transport Satish Sharma.
While issues of five departments are also on agenda of the Cabinet, official sources told the Excelsior that focus will be on CSC report on reservation with unrest growing among general category students over reservations touching 70 percent in the Government jobs and educational institutions leaving less than 30 percent posts/seats for them.
“The Cabinet Sub-Committee report will be tabled before the Cabinet meeting,” the sources said, adding the CSC will brief the Cabinet on recommendations made by them after taking view point of stakeholders over a period of six months.
The Cabinet has to take a call on recommendations-whether to implement them and if they are to be implemented the procedure to be adopted. The Legislature is not in the session and the Assembly session is expected to be held in September-October.
“All these issues will come up for discussion in the Cabinet and a roadmap on reservation will be finalized,” the sources said.
The issues related to promotion of tourism in Jammu and Kashmir and arrangements for Shri Amarnath yatra will also be taken up by the Cabinet. The Government has been making lot of efforts to revive tourism in Kashmir which has taken a hit after April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
The Omar Abdullah-Government is under pressure on the issue of reservations as this was also part of their election manifesto. Soon after formation of the Government, NC’s Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi forcefully took up the issue and supported cause of students and youth. On December 10, 2024, the Government set up CSC and gave it six months time to submit report. The Panel drafted its report on June 10, 2025 exactly after six months.
Reservation in Jammu and Kashmir has reached 70 percent.
Sources said the Government will have to walk a tightrope in taking a call on the issue of reservation. “A cut in the reservation in any category will be a difficult task but without that there is no other way to give relief to general category candidates,” they added.Jammu food guide
The highest 20 percent reservation has been given to Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Jammu and Kashmir including 10 percent each to Gujjars and Bakerwals and Pahari Ethnic Tribes, 10 percent to Resident of Backward Areas, 10 percent to Economically Weaker Sections, eight percent to Other Backward Classes, eight percent to Scheduled Castes (SCs) and four percent to Residents of areas adjoining Line of Actual Control (ALC)/International Border (IB). There is 10 percent horizontal reservation including six percent to Ex-Servicemen and four percent to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
Further, some candidates from the reserved category, who get selected in general category, can also opt for jobs or seats in open category.
There was no reservation to OBCs till a year back and only four percent reservation was given under the category Other Social Castes (OSCs). However, the BJP-led Central Government fulfilled long-pending demand of the OBCs for reservation and passed a law in the Parliament after which they got eight percent reservation.
Also, there was 20 percent reservation under Resident of Backward Areas category which has been reduced to 10 percent. There were allegations that influential persons got their villages included in the RBA category to avail benefits of reservation for their kin. Daily Excelsior
