Extend benefits of minority community status to Sikhs: Jagmohan Raina

Srinagar, Dec 3: The All Parties Sikh Coordination Committee (APSCC) while demanding reservation for Sikhs in education and government jobs has said that reservation benefits should be given to the people who really deserve it and that too should be one time and not a continuous process. Facts and provisions should be sorted out meticulously so that merit holders do not suffer and maximum share should be for majority community.

In a statement, APSCC Chairman Jagmohan Singh Raina said that it has been observed that a person gets benefits of reservation at multiple fronts.

He said that the process needs to be changed and it should be the prerogative of the candidate to avail the reservation benefits at the education level or at the job level. "Once a youth avails the benefits of reservation the process should be stopped forthwith. It is not just to extend the benefits of the reservation to the same youth time and again," said the APSCC Chairman.

Raina said that under the National Minority Act Sikh community is a minority but still then the benefits of reservation have not been extended to the youth of the community. He said that this is injustice with the community and to that the Sikh youth have been pushed to the wall. "It is quite astonishing and surprising that the ruling National Conference despite claiming being a secular party does not want reservation quota to be extended to the Sikh community in Jammu & Kashmir. This speaks of a double policy and the party leaders are answerable about the same," said the APSCC Chairman.