Jammu and Kashmir: People residing in areas adjoining International Border thank Centre for approving reservation bill

People residing near the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district have thanked the central government for approving a bill to provide for job reservation to them on the lines of the concession enjoyed by those living along the Line of Control.

The Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has earlier this week cleared the decks for approval of The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2019, which will now be introduced in Parliament in the forthcoming session.

Hailing the government's decision, a local resident said, "Every time firing is done from the other side of the border, we are forced to leave this place. Our children's studies are affected badly due to this, our crops get damaged and our business comes to a halt. Government does provide us help but still we have to suffer a lot. We thank the central government for helping us out. If people here will get reservation in jobs then it will help us a lot as it is difficult for children here to compete with those living in other cities."

Another person said, "This decision should have been taken long time back, but still we are happy that finally somebody has thought about us. It's a good decision taken by the government. We thank the government for this. We hope that the government will think more about the people staying in such tough conditions. We will support that government, which will think for us."

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Yet another local resident has further requested government to provide financial aid.

He said, "We further request the government to provide us more bunkers. Also, the government should provide us financial assistance for the loss of property during firing from the Pakistan side."

The Bill will replace "The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Ordinance,2019" by amendments in the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 and bringing persons residing in the areas adjoining International Border within the ambit of reservation at par with persons living in areas adjoining Actual Line of Control (ALoC).

The people living in Jammu and Kashmir areas adjoining International Border were not included in the ambit of the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004 and Rules, 2005. It provides for reservation in direct recruitment, promotions and admission in different professional courses to various categories including residents of Areas adjoining Actual Line of Control. Therefore, they were not getting these benefits for a long time.

Hence, the Union Cabinet "felt justifiable to extend the reservation benefits to persons residing in the areas adjoining International Border on the similar lines of the persons living in areas adjoining Actual Line of Control (ALoC)," a statement read.

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