Srinagar, Sep 27 : The administration in Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday briefed the visiting Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) about different welfare schemes and programmes for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes that are under implementation in the UT.
The delegation provided an overview of all the welfare measures and schemes under implementation by Additional Chief Secretary, H&ME, Vivek Bhardwaj. They also replied to the queries and concerns projected by the Parliamentary Committee (PC) members led by MP, Dr Kirit P Solanki.
The officers informed the Parliamentary Committee that UT has successfully conducted elections to all three tiers of panchayat and all municipal bodies with reservation for SCs & STs in proportion of their population and therefore the communities have got representation at grass root democratic institutions for the first time in the history of J&K.
They further informed that the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, -1989 became applicable to the UT of J&K post abrogation of the Article 370. They added that the Forest Rights Act, 2006 has been implemented and the nomadic survey has been conducted for the first time in J&K.
With respect to reservation in jobs it they said that under J&K Reservation Act 2004 & the J&K Reservation Rules 2005, reservation for SCs at the rate of eight per cent and for STs at the rate of 10 per cent is provided in direct recruitment and for admission in professional institutions including MD, MS, M Tech, Engineering, Agriculture Science and other professional courses.
Moreover the committee was apprised that there is no manual scavenging taking place anywhere in the UT and electricity has been provided to every household including SCs and STs. The PC was also assured by the officers that safe water connections to every households including SCs/STs would be realised by next year.
In addition to these the official delegation listed out various other measures undertaken by different departments for the educational, health and livelihood up gradation of such population.
The delegation also included Principal Secretary Skill Development, Commissioner Secretary Labour and Employment, Secretary Social Welfare, Secretary Tribal Affairs, Secretary Planning, MD NRLM, Secretary Law and several other officers of the UT administration.
Pertinent to mention here that the Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes consists of 30 members – 20 elected by Lok Sabha and 10 by Rajya Sabha from amongst their members. Out of these currently 22 are on the visit to UT of J&K.
The mandate of the committee is to examine the measures taken by the union government to secure due representation of the SCs and STs in services and posts under its control. These include appointments in the Public Sector Undertakings, Nationalised Banks, Statutory and Semi-Government Bodies and in the Union Territories with regard to the provisions of Article 335 of the Indian Constitution.
