Jammu, 7th August, 2011
Highlighting the problems being faced by the nomadic communities, 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 sought the immediate intervention of State Chief Minister, Mr. Omar Abdullah, to mitigate their grievances and frame State Tribal Policy for them. A meeting of State Executives of forum held here today under the chairmanship its State Chief, Roshan Din Choudhary, in which the burning demands of Gujjars communities were discussed at length. The main issues of the Gujjars communities deliberated here in this meeting included the non-implementation of STs reservation in promotion& recruitment; lapse of huge backlogs, discrimination in development of areas inhabited by Gujjars, no representation of Gujjar community in the quorum of main recruitment agencies of State, like Public Service Commission and Service Selection Recruitment Board.
Speaking on the occasion, Roshan Din Choudhary urged the state govt. to redress the issues of these downtrodden communities on top priority. He further said that for past quite some time the Gujjar & Bakerwal communities have no member in Jammu Kashmir Public Service commission and Service Selection Recruitment Board which has put the interests of candidates of their communities at stake. Roshan Din also appealed the Govt. to immediately induct the member from Gujjar & Bakerwal Communities into Public Service Commission and SSRB.
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 harmed, added Bajjar.
Prominent among others who spoke on the occasion were Shah Mohd, Tanwir Ahmed, Munshi Khan, Khursheed-Ul-Islam, Advocate Tanzir Khatana, Advocate Pervaiz Choduhary, and Sardar Khan.