Aqib Ul Ahad Wani
First of all, I am not against RBA category, but I am against those who had been continuously taking the entitlements of reservation. RBA becomes political tool in J&K, while many areas have put up a strong case for their reservation under reservation Backward areas, the others which have been categorized under RBA need to be notified to make way for the deserving ones. However, the entire process has been struck in the political vested interests and the people of the deserving areas have been deprived of their legitimate right. While expressing his view to kashmir horizon newspaper a young law student namely Aqib Ul Ahad Wani from Ganderbal said that some areas which are just 12-15 kms from Srinagar city are enlisted as RBA villages in Kashmir. “These areas were indeed backward twenty years back but not now at least and it is so sad to know that some of our senior leaders and ministers in present cabinet have used RBA as a tool to gain political mileage,” The rate of land in many so called RBA villages in district Srinagar ranges between RS 30-35 lakh per kanal, how can these areas be justified as backward villages. Our area is almost 50 km away from Srinagar with no road connectivity, the literacy rate is mere 20% but still we have not been given status of RBA”
He added that lack of transparency in categorization of areas under RBA enlistments have been made purely political basis. The areas which were represented by MLA,s from National conference and PDP got the RBA status and the areas which had weak representation couldn’t be enlisted as RBA villages. An independent commission must be set up by the Government which re access the villages categorized as RBA villages. There are genuine areas in district ganderbal such as Devipora, Pati devpora, Malikpora, GogjiGund, Korag etc which prima facie deserves to be residents of backward area, but they have not been included under RBA category and this is a total injustice with these areas on the other hand there are dozens of RBA villages which are very much developed nowadays. The above mentioned villages lacks basic need of life like roads, hospitals, schools & colleges, connectivity. I being myself as law student has read in my constitutional law subject that after the deserving class achieves the goal in life and improves their financial conditions. They no longer remain in reservation list. Now my question to government is “ Have you removed any single village from backward list after the villages has attained the development in each and every field. As per my opinion reservation should be enjoyed by particulars levels and not beyond that level. In present day to day life we see the children of doctors, gazetted officers enjoys the benefits reservation. The are so many high level officials who got selected at high level posts in the government only on the basis of being residents of Schedule caste and scheduled tribe and backward area. They are receiving a handsome amount of salary from government and their yearly income is too high but still their children are getting the benefit of SC, ST certificate. There are hundreds of families who actually hail from RBA villages of JK or have purchased few kanals of land there for RBA category certificate & settled in the cities & towns got into top government jobs under reserved categories. The sons & daughters of these well settled people in government sectors are living in areas of cities also get entitlements under RBA or other reserved categories. The sons & daughters of such families having better schooling get the employment in the public sector early under RBA & are posted in the cities & towns whereas the deserving youth are deprived both of their services & employment. One feels hopeless for being born in a forward & poor family. A student belonging to general & poor category after working hard & burning his midnight oil to get selected for any post or course is dropped for some points but a student belonging to reservation category after doing a little hard work is selected for having much less points than that of dropped one. This privilege is not a one time coupon but all time coupon.The reserved people continue to get set benefits throughout their lifetime whenever he needs to make his way behind the general categories of the society. Even the Phd scholars of general category apply for fourth class jobs due to this selective attitude from govt.
Strategy and steps which government needs to do in order to achieve proper goals of reservation system: Keeping the politics & fear of losing vote bank aside, the govt needs to rethink & revisit about their policies on reservations for the sake of humanity. They should remove the lacunas & shortcomings in the policy of reservations. They should introduce a bill which can ensure on time benefit under reservations. Furthermore, Govt needs to recheck about the areas coming under RBA category as maximum number of villages coming under RBA category has forwarded more than that of pre-existing ones. These areas were backward 20 years before; they now possess modern facilities like roads, hospitals, schools & colleges, connectivity & are still enlisted under RBA category. Let’s hope that our Govt will bring a revolution for whole state by taking a review on the policy of reservations & come up with better policies & changes according to changing times and I hope deserving villages will be given the status of RBA including my village namely Pati Devipora Ganderbal which lacks basic facilities of life like roads, hospitals, schools & connectivity.
(The author a law student at Kashmir University is regular columnist of “Kashmir Horizon”. Views are his own [email protected])