Kashmir Impulse Desk
Srinagar, Sep 19
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday demanded that the government make public the findings of a panel examining its reservation policy, as the issue remained a point of political contention ahead of the Assembly session.
PDP workers led by party leader Iltija Mufti had planned a march from the party headquarters but were stopped by police, party sources said. The protesters later demonstrated outside the office.
The party accused the government of delaying publication of the Cabinet Sub-Committee’s report on rationalising the reservation framework.
The government formed the committee in December 2024 after changes to reservation rules expanded the framework, including the addition of new Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste beneficiaries. Open-merit aspirants subsequently called for a review, saying the changes reduced opportunities in the open category, according to the source material.
Mufti said the government had promised to examine the concerns and make the panel’s findings available, but that the report had still not been made public.
“We have a very simple demand. … You tell us now, what are the findings of this report?” she said.
She also criticised the government’s record on employment and alleged that outsourcing had reduced opportunities for young people. Those allegations were political claims made during the protest and were not independently established in the source material.
The reservation debate has involved competing demands from open-merit groups for greater transparency and from reserved-category groups for protection of existing affirmative-action provisions.
