SRINAGAR: The Centre has reportedly advised the Lieutenant Governor administration to freeze all government appointments till the government announces policy measures on issuing domicile certificates to non-locals to protect the land and job rights of the J&K residents. This comes a day after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court withdrew a controversial invitation to job applicants from outside the erstwhile J&K state, now carved into two UTs,
A senior J&K BJP leader said that the Centre has been planning to grant concessions to J&K residents after scrapping Article 370, which granted special status to J&K, and 35A, which barred outsiders from purchasing land and applying for government jobs. “Every job advertised in J&K will not be open to all across India, there will be riders,” he said.
The HC’s decision to invite applications from candidates across the country for 33 non-gazetted posts had led to resentment among locals and political parties in J&K compelling the authorities to withdraw the notification. “We don’t know the intent of those who issued the notification,” the BJP leader said. Another BJP leader said MHA officials recently held a meeting to discuss options to provide constitutional safeguards to J&K residents. “The options being discussed include providing domicile certificate to non-locals with a cap of 10-12 years,” he said.
According to him, domicile certificates will be issued to non-locals, who have lived in J&K for 10-12 years after formal bifurcation of J&K into two UTs – Jammu and Kashmir (with legislature) and Ladakh (without legislature) – on October 31. He said after getting the domicile certificate, the non-locals would be entitled to purchase land and apply for government jobs in J&K. “However, these will not be on the pattern of Article 371. It will be different than that,” the BJP leader added.