Don't pay heed to motivated campaign against domicile rules for J-K: BJP to people

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the BJP on Sunday appealed to the people to not get carried away by the "motivated and misinformation" campaign by the opposition against the new domicile law, saying it will neither change the demography nor deny jobs to the local youth. The party said the "anger and opposition of the campaigners" has nothing to do with the interest of the local youth but to build a narrative for restoration of Articles 370 and 35A.

BJP spokesperson Brig (retd) Anil Gupta said not sooner than the ink had dried on the two latest promulgations of the Ministry of Home Affairs with relation to the amendment of the J&K Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment Act- (Act No XVI of 2010), the Kashmir-centric political leadership led by former chief minister Omar Abdullah launched a "vilification campaign" against the government accusing it of intending to change the demography of the union territory. "Who will benefit from the new rule? It would be the wards of West Pakistan refugees, Balmikis, Gorkhas , Punjabis and migrant labour. All except the migrant labour are the inhabitants of Jammu and Kashmir for periods much longer than 15 years and had been unjustifiably denied the basic facilities including jobs under the garb of (Article) 35A for the reasons well known to Kashmiri leaders," he said. Gupta said the new rule would neither change the demography nor snatch the jobs of the local youth as they are very much part of the existing eco-system.  "As far as migrant labour is concerned, their number eligible for jobs may not be even a few hundred when the total jobs at stake are 50,000 while the total jobs amount to 4.5 lakh. The objection to including the wards of All India Services and other central government departments is also not justified as the Act states that they shall have served for 10 years," he said.

"I appeal to the people to not get carried away by this motivated, misinformation campaign. Their anger and opposition has nothing to do with the interest of the local youth but to build a narrative for restoration of 370 and 35A in a different avatar," Gupta said. Defending the promulgation amid the lockdown due to the coronavirus, he said the same very leadership was accusing the government of not starting the process to fill 50,000 government jobs as was promised after abrogation of Article 370 last year. "The government with the good intention of rolling out these jobs for the unemployed youth had also earmarked Rs 2,000 crore in the UT's budget for current financial year," he said, adding the government worked over time to promulgate the notification without which the process could not have begun.

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