Former chief minister and National Conference (NC) Vice President Omar Abdullah on Friday said that all the misgiving of his party about the new domicile rules in Jammu and Kashmir have come true.
Mr Abdullah said that the NC opposed the changes because it could see the nefarious design behind the changes. “The people of J&K on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountains will be the sufferers of these domicile rules,” he added.
About 25,000 people, including a senior IAS officer from Bihar, Navin Kumar Choudhary, have been given domicile certificates by the government in Jammu and Kashmir so far.
“All our misgivings about the new domicile rules in J&K are coming to the fore. We in @JKNC_ opposed the changes because we could see the nefarious design behind the changes. The people of J&K on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountains will be the sufferers of these domicile rules,” Mr Abdullah wrote on micro-bogging site twitter.
About eight months after the special status of J&K was scrapped, the BJP government on April 1 notified a law spelling out domicile of Jammu and Kashmir and also the eligibility for employment in the region.
According to this law, domiciles have been defined as those who have resided for a period of 15 years in Jammu and Kashmir or have studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th/12th examination in an educational institution located in J&K. The domiciles also include children of those central government officials, all India services officers, officials of public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies of the central government, public sector banks, statutory bodies, central universities and recognised research institutes of the central government who have served in J&K for a total period of 10 years.Before August 5, Jammu and Kashmir was governed under the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir while Article 35-A prohibited people from outside from buying property in the erstwhile state and ensuring job reservation for permanent residents.Article 35-A empowered the J&K government to define a class of persons as constituting ‘permanent residents’ of the erstwhile state and allow the government to confer on them special rights and privileges with respect to matters of public employment and acquisition of immovable property in the State.