PoJK DPs  can’t be denied  Pahari status-  Ravinder Sharma

JAMMU , March 06, 2023:-Former  MLC and a Senior Congress Leader Mr Ravinder Sharma has questioned the denial of Pahari status & benefits of reservation to  a section of displaced pahari community from POJK, settled in few pockets  Jammu province,other than in Poonch – Rajouri districts and termed it a great injustice with them besides seeking 1/3rd share for them in the, 24 assembly seats reserved for POJK. 

BJP should also fulfill the commitment of full financial package of @₹30 lac per family and other components of reservation as recommended by then state government. 

Talking to a group of young leaders of the PoJK community here today, Mr Ravinder Sharma said that the  displaced people of 1947 are worst sufferers,who lost everything including  their family members, kith & kin in thousands during Pak invaders attack. 

They were settled by the then governments, in different pockets of Jammu & kashmir regions, apart from  Rajouri &Poonch ,  depending upon the availability of vacant state/ evacue  land ,plots etc,.

 They are original Paharis by their language, culture,customs & traditions etc , irrespective of their place of residence, ge said questioning  how can members of same clan and community   having similar language, culture, history  be divided & deprived of the benefits  on the basis of present place of residence,that too, not of their own choice. Despite being bonafide Paharis, by all parameters like their counter parts including members of even same families,settled in Rajouri- Poonch, why they are not entitled to availing the benefits of Pahari,he questioned, sensing a conspiracy behind this, he alleged. 

He regretted  the silence of BJP and ignorance of LG administration  over the  illegal denial of Pahari reservation & benefits to the bonafide claimants of displaced community, still living in various camps and small landholdings ,some still unsettled,in different pockets of Jammu province & in few pockets of Kashmir Valley, coming from Muzaffrabad or Baramulla/Kupwara districts,etc . 

 It is totally illegal, unjustified and mis interpretation of the provisions and mis -reading of the ground situation, he said adding the government will have to face a difficult situation in the days to come. 

These displaced Paharis too are part of our struggle for grant of ST status to the community but there is need to immediately rectify, recognize and allow them the due benefits of pahari reservations, being illegally denied to them. 

Referring to the demand for defreezing of 1/3rd assembly seats out of 24 seats for PoJK, Sharma demanded appropriate amendments in  law to allocate seats proportional to the displaced population, who survived to cross over to this side and let them elect their real representatives. Allocating two /three seats by way of nomination, as being suggested, would result in great injustice to the  large displaced community from Mirpur, Poonch and Muzzfrabad, he added.