Rationalisation of Reservation: Cabinet adopted transparent, rational process as promised to people: CM Omar

Jammu, Dec 3: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said that the cabinet had worked in earnest to “adopt a transparent and rational process as promised to people to rationalise reservation a bit after an exhaustive exercise, while ensuring justice to all.”

Responding to media queries after chairing the cabinet meeting at his residence, the CM, without sharing the contours of the long-awaited CSC report on reservation, said that the matter, which would finally be dealt with by the Lieutenant Governor, was not taken up or resolved to “satisfy or please any specific individual.”

An elaborate exercise was done exclusively for J&K people, with an objective to fulfill another promise made in the National Conference (NC) manifesto, he said.

However, CM Omar plainly refused to divulge any details about the much-hyped report prepared by the Cabinet Sub Committee (CSC) on reservation till it reached the LG for approval.

Reports attributed to anonymous official sources have pointed out that the government has proposed to trim the quota of the Residents of Backward Areas (RBA) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) to enhance the open merit percentage to 40 percent from the existing 30 percent.

A steep decline in the percentage of jobs and seats in educational, professional institutes for open merit candidates (30 percent) created an uproar among general category candidates, particularly in the Kashmir region.

“One agenda item (during the cabinet meeting) was related to reservations as well. It will be inappropriate if I discuss or present a critique (vis-à-vis the reservation report) before signing the minutes of the cabinet meeting and sending them to the LG for approval,” the CM said.

“I will only say that a sincere attempt, as we had promised to the people, has been made to rationalise it (reservation) a bit. Endeavour has also been made that no injustice is done to anyone, anywhere. We have taken a lot of time, as this is such a sensitive issue that it can easily be politicised, which you have also witnessed,” he said.

Elaborating further about the volatile contours of this issue, CM Omar also aimed barbs at his and his party’s “political adversaries,” saying, “Ironically, those who were taunting us until yesterday that we did nothing on (the issue of) reservation (rationalisation), today they are threatening us to launch an agitation if it is done.”

This oblique dig, seemingly, was two-pronged, aimed at the estranged party MP Aga Syed Ruhullah as well as the leaders of other Kashmir based political parties, which had shared their reservations about the reported move of CM Omar Abdullah-led government to “effect a cut on quota related to RBA (besides EWS) to rationalise percentage of jobs and seats in the educational, professional institutes for open merit or general category candidates.”

People’s Conference (PC) President Sajad Lone, in particular, had objected to the “proposed move” (as per reports attributed to official sources) to trim the RBA quota.

“This move, if it is taken, will harm the interests of Kashmiris only, as RBA is the only reservation where Kashmiris have benefited. This move is also fraught with the risk of pitting Kashmiris against Kashmiris,” Lone has said.

Ruhullah, who was not invited to the recently held two-day National Working Committee meeting, had threatened to protest outside the residence of CM Omar, along with the open merit candidates, yet again if rationalisation of reservation was not done till December 20, 2025.

The CM pointed out that an exhaustive exercise was undertaken to sort out the tricky issue.

“The cabinet, from its side, has tried to adopt a transparent and fair process. Now the matter will go to the LG Sahib. Until the file reaches him, I’ll not say anything beyond it,” he said.

“We have done a comprehensive exercise to sort out the issue. We could not do a more detailed exercise than what we did. Every issue was thoroughly looked into. The issue was deliberated more than once. Probably this was the third or fourth time that the issue figured before the cabinet. Earlier, our senior cabinet colleague Sakina Itoo led the cabinet-sub-committee which prepared the report in six-months. Whatever possible we could do on our own, we did it, in earnest. Rest, we’ll see what happens in future,” the CM said.

On whether his friends (critics) would be satisfied with the laborious exercise done by the cabinet on the issue, he said that it (rationalisation) was not done to please them or satisfy a particular individual.

“There is hardly anything which can satisfy my friends, you are referring to. This we have not done for their satisfaction. If a particular individual thinks that it has been done for him or aimed at pleasing him, it will be a misplaced notion. This (issue) does not relate to a specific individual. This is for the people of J&K. And from our side, this was an endeavour to fulfill another promise which we made in our manifesto,” CM Omar said.

Replying to questions about the issues taken up during the first cabinet meeting after the biannual Darbar Move, a practice which was restored after a hiatus of over four years, to the winter capital, the CM said that deliberations took place on many issues during the meeting like the construction of new Kashmir House at Dwarka (in Delhi); proposal related to the Chief Engineers in the R&B Department.

“We discussed the prospects as to how cooperative societies can be revived in a novel manner. There were two or three agenda items focused on this issue,” he said.

Besides the reservation issue, the cabinet also okayed proposals related to the establishment of the Animal Protection Board for streamlining livestock related regulations, deliberated issues related to the Power Development Department (PDD) vis-à-vis winter preparedness.

Talking to media persons after the cabinet meeting, Minister for Tribal Affairs Javed Rana said that he had made specific recommendations about two communities under the charge of his department.

“Besides promotions in the R&B department, the issue of daily wagers (from all departments) also came up for discussion during the cabinet meeting. The Chief Secretary (CS) has been asked to expedite the process to complete the report of the committee headed by CS,” Rana said.