Backward area notification unconstitutional: Dr Jitendra
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 7: Even as the National Conference (NC)-Congress Coalition Government is drawing flak for having committed yet another act of discrimination against Jammu through its notification arbitrarily declaring 45 villages as “Backward Area”, BJP National Executive Member and J&K chief spokesperson, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the notification itself was liable to be challenged in the court of law because it was unconstitutional and in violation of the criterion laid down for declaring an area as “Backward”.
The issue goes beyond the controversy of having only 17 out of 45 villages from Jammu and that too 16 out of 17 of them from constituencies of sitting Congress Ministers, he in a statement pointed out.
Dr Jitendra Singh went on to explain that a village is to be declared backward by the Government only on the recommendations of the State Commission for Backward Classes (SCBC) after the latter has assessed its development scenario on the basis of 52 indicators including progress in social sectors like health, education and accessibility. While the backward areas receive special attention on developmental front and get a special quota of Government jobs and other benefits, the J&K State Commission for Backward Classes Act makes it mandatory for the Government to undertake the revision of backward villages after every 10 years to exclude such areas from the list which have grown forward on developmental graph, he said.
This means that whenever an exercise like this is undertaken, it is meant not only to include such areas which had been left unincluded during earlier exercise but also to “exclude” from the list such areas which could have been backward earlier but are no longer backward now as per the criterion mentioned above, he added.
A glaring contradiction, cited by Dr Jitendra Singh, is that some villages which were declared backward as early as in 1975,continue to enjoy the same status and privileges even today since there was no revaluation of their status undertaken for the next 30 years or so. This amounts to gross violation of the very concept of providing special privileges to genuinely backward areas, he added.
Unfortunately, Dr Jitendra Singh said, from time to time, those in the ministry have flouted the norms to push in areas from their respective constituencies for the privileged status under the “backward” category and suggested that one remedy to this could be to make the Commission for Backward Classes an autonomous independent body.
Dr Jitendra Singh reminded that the aim and spirit of the law is to bring the underdeveloped areas on the holistic path of progress by providing focused attention and not to reduce the law to a mere tool for securing 20 percent reservation in Government jobs or 10 per cent reservation in promotions for a handful of blue-eyed ones hailing from a certain Minister’s constituency.
JAMMU, Jan 7: Even as the National Conference (NC)-Congress Coalition Government is drawing flak for having committed yet another act of discrimination against Jammu through its notification arbitrarily declaring 45 villages as “Backward Area”, BJP National Executive Member and J&K chief spokesperson, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that the notification itself was liable to be challenged in the court of law because it was unconstitutional and in violation of the criterion laid down for declaring an area as “Backward”.
The issue goes beyond the controversy of having only 17 out of 45 villages from Jammu and that too 16 out of 17 of them from constituencies of sitting Congress Ministers, he in a statement pointed out.
Dr Jitendra Singh went on to explain that a village is to be declared backward by the Government only on the recommendations of the State Commission for Backward Classes (SCBC) after the latter has assessed its development scenario on the basis of 52 indicators including progress in social sectors like health, education and accessibility. While the backward areas receive special attention on developmental front and get a special quota of Government jobs and other benefits, the J&K State Commission for Backward Classes Act makes it mandatory for the Government to undertake the revision of backward villages after every 10 years to exclude such areas from the list which have grown forward on developmental graph, he said.
This means that whenever an exercise like this is undertaken, it is meant not only to include such areas which had been left unincluded during earlier exercise but also to “exclude” from the list such areas which could have been backward earlier but are no longer backward now as per the criterion mentioned above, he added.
A glaring contradiction, cited by Dr Jitendra Singh, is that some villages which were declared backward as early as in 1975,continue to enjoy the same status and privileges even today since there was no revaluation of their status undertaken for the next 30 years or so. This amounts to gross violation of the very concept of providing special privileges to genuinely backward areas, he added.
Unfortunately, Dr Jitendra Singh said, from time to time, those in the ministry have flouted the norms to push in areas from their respective constituencies for the privileged status under the “backward” category and suggested that one remedy to this could be to make the Commission for Backward Classes an autonomous independent body.
Dr Jitendra Singh reminded that the aim and spirit of the law is to bring the underdeveloped areas on the holistic path of progress by providing focused attention and not to reduce the law to a mere tool for securing 20 percent reservation in Government jobs or 10 per cent reservation in promotions for a handful of blue-eyed ones hailing from a certain Minister’s constituency.
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