Zahid Sarfraz Malik Advocate, President, Jammu and Kashmir Pahari Tribe Lawyers

IMRAN Khan 

Rajouri July 18:-Forum strongly reacted to the clarification issued by the  government whereby  income slab of Rs, 8 Lakh is made  applicable to Pahari speaking Tribe.

It is important to mention here that recently rule 2 (XI a) was inserted to provide reservation to Pahari Speaking Tribe which includes persons belonging to Pahari community, clan or tribe having distinct cultural, ethnic  and linguistic identity and at the time of this insertion (amendment) there was no mention of income slab for reservation to Pahari Speaking people but now the government has issued a clarification whereby clarified that income slab of 8 lakh is applicable to Pahari Speaking tribe, it is a cruel joke with pahari Tribe and is a deliberate attempt to weaken the case of Pahari Tribe for declaring them as Scheduled Tribe.  

Schedule Tribe Status is a long pending and most deserving demand of the pahari Speaking Tribe of Jammu and Kashmir and are striving and struggling for this cause since last more than five  decades.  Pahari speaking tribe  are mainly  concentrated in remote border areas and are put to considerable economic distress, as is evident from their backwardness in reference to socio-economic indices. Government of Jammu and Kashmir and Government of India have identified and recognized paharis as a tribe and the same can be cleared from the facts that the Government of Jammu and Kashmir way back vide Cabinet decision no. 159 dated 8-8-1989 identified and recommended the paharis, Gujjars, Bakerwals, Gaddi, Bazigar and Saniasi to be declared and notified as Scheduled Tribes, excluding  paharis the others out  of the same recommendation i.e.Gujjars, Bakerwals and Gaddis were declared as Scheduled Tribe by the Government of India in 1992. Thereafter from time to time number of recommendations were there wherein recommended for Schedule Tribe status to Pahari Speaking Tribe those includes Standing committee on labour and welfare headed by Dr. Susheel Kumar Indora in his report submitted in 2002 to the Government of Inda recommended ST status for Pahari speaking Tribe, Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, General K.V.Krishna Rao again recommended the case of pahari speaking tribe for grant of Schedule Tribe Status vide recommendation letter dated 26th of December 1993, Interlocutors group headed by Dilip Padguakar also recommends for ST status, Governor Sh. G.C.Saxena also urged ST status for Pahari Speaking Tribe, successive governments of Jammu and Kashmir recommended ST status for Pahari Speaking Tribe, the then Prime Minister Sh. H.D.Devegoda during his public meeting at Uri and Rajouri in February 1997 has in clear terms made commitment to grant Schedule Tribe status to pahari speaking tribe, Then Hon’ble ex-Prime Minster Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a mammoth public gathering at Tangdhar also agreed in principle to issue the orders of S.T Status to paharis very soon, Justice A.S.Anand Commission, Justice Saghir  report. 

Mr. Malik said that Reservation in india is a system of affirmative action that provides representation for historically and currently disadvantaged groups in Indian society in education, employment and politics. Scheduled Tribe, the definition of this group varies but the criteria for a Schedule Tribe is indication of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large and backwardness. Pahari Speaking Tribe of Jammu and Kashmir fullfills the criteria as  provided in the Constitution for grant of Schedule Tribe Status, as such, shall not tolerate any foul play and  appealed the Government to roll back the income slab fixed for issuance PSP category as early as possible.