NEW DELHI The government on Thursday gave its nod to the promulgation of an ordinance for giving reservation benefits to SCs and STs in Jammu and Kashmir by amending a clause of the contentious Article 370, which gives special status to the state.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.
“It will serve the purpose of application of relevant provisions of the Constitution of India, as amended through the Constitution (Seventy Seventh Amendment) Act, 1995 and Constitution (One Hundred and third Amendment) Act, 2019 for Jammu and Kashmir, by issuing the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Amendment Order, 2019 by the President under clause (1) of Article 370,” he said. The ordinance will have to be promulgated by the President.
Meanwhile, an official spokesperson here said the 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 spokesman said.
He said the cabinet approved the amendment to 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, state government said. This would benefit residents in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, the spokesman said in a statement issued here.
He further said: 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.
Through a Presidential Order, he said, 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.
These were recommended by the SAC in it’s meeting last week to the Union Government, the spokesman added.
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