Jammu, 20th Nov., 2011
Alleging neglect at all front by the Jammu and Kashmir government, the Gujjars of J&K State through Jammu Kashmir Tribal United Forum (TUF), a premier organisation working for the affairs of the Gujjars & other tribal groups in the state, today demanded a transparent and fair treatment to Gujjar and Bakerwal communities and also sought the immediate intervention of State Chief Minister, Mr. Omar Abdullah, to mitigate their grievances.
In a meeting of state executive body of forum, held under the chairmanship of its State Chief, Roshan Din Choudhary, the leaders of forum discussed the burning issues and problems of the nomadic communities. The main issues of the Gujjars communities deliberated at length here in this meeting included the non-implementation of STs reservation in recruitment & promotion; lapse of huge backlogs, de-reservation of reserved posts, discrimination in development of areas inhabited by Gujjar & Bakerwal, diversion of TSP funds and no representation of Gujjar community in the quorum of main recruitment agencies of State, like Public Service Commission and Service Selection Recruitment Board.
Roshan Din Choudhary, while speaking on the occasion, urged the state govt. to redress the issues of these downtrodden communities on top priority. He said that despite repeated appeals, so far the Govt. has not appointed any member from Gujjar & Bakerwal communities into Jammu Kashmir Public Service commission and Service Selection Recruitment Board which has done a great loss to the interests of candidates from these communities. Roshan Din further demanded immediate appointment of one member from Gujjar & Bakerwal Communities to each Public Service Commission (PSC) and SSRB.
With respect to the development of areas inhabited by the Gujjar & Bakerwal, hailing the decision of planning commission to have separate allocation of funds under annual plan and the keenness of Union Finance Ministry in bringing the transparency in the utilization of funds for the SCs & STs, Roshan Din expressed the need to bring the accountability in the execution of schemes and projects under tribal sub-plan to curb the otherwise huge misappropriation and diversion which remained the main reason for the lake of development of the infrastructures and implementation major projects for SCs & STs.
Dr. Zabeer Ahmed Bajjar, general secretary of forum disclosed that the gujjars have also suffered a loss of more than 28,000 posts in direct recruitment against 2,80,000 adhoc, contractual, stop gap and temporary mode appointments done by the government in last few years. Likewise, their community officers have also been ignored in fixing the seniority, promotions and posting thereof.
In a press handout issued here, Bajjar stated that instead of getting their problems ameliorated, the suffering and grievances of the tribal communities particularly the gujjars have piled so up that the same have attained a gigantic situation not in a single sphere but in each and every aspect like recruitment, promotion, placement, transfer procedures and the overall socio-economic & educational development of their tribe thus disappointing the whole tribal communities. He also said that despite Gujjar & Bakerwal constitute one-third of total population of the state, the officers from tribal communities are seldom given the chance to function in key postings where they can deliver good for the State, society & their communities too. Alleging that they don’t have any member in recruitment board/commission like Service Selection Recruitment Board, Public service Commission, Bajjar also said that besides negligible representation in civil secretariat, gujjars officers are not placed to head the district level civil and police administration. Praising state Chief Minister for his dynamism, Bajjar urged him to personally monitor the matters related to the protection of the interests of tribals for their upliftment who have laid great expectation on him. In case, CM would leave it to the anti-tribal bureaucracy, the interests of downtrodden will be at stake, added Bajjar.
Among others who spoke on the occasion were Tanwir Ahmed, Khursheed-Ul-Islam, Munshi Khan, Adv. Tanzir Khatana, Er. Shah Mohd., Adv. Pervaiz Choduhary, Adv. Zaffer Choudhary, Assad Chouhan and Master Mohd Fazal.
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