Srinagar, Sep 19 : PDP leader Iltija Mufti on Saturday hit out at the National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir over unemployment and alleged discrimination in government jobs, accusing it of carrying out institutional apartheid and demanding that a sub-committee report promised by former chief minister Omar Abdullah be made public.
Addressing reporters here, Iltija Mufti as per news agency said joblessness remains a serious concern in the Union Territory. We know how unemployed people are in Jammu and Kashmir. The youth of this country are not getting any jobs, she said.
She recalled a protest held outside Omar Abdullah’s residence on December 24, during which, she claimed, the NC leader had assured open merit students that a sub-committee would be set up within six months and its report presented within the same period.
It’s been two years and there is no sign of the report, Iltija said, asking the government to disclose the panel’s findings.
Alleging that Kashmiris were being punished and merit apartheidised, she said, Our Kashmiri community is being punished. An institutional weeding is being carried out. Merit is being apartheidized in Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir is the only state where merit is being punished.
She said the protest was aimed at reminding the NC government of its commitment. Please tell us the findings of the sub-committee report that you will present in six months. What are the findings of the sub-committee report that you have presented? Because it’s been two years since then. And in those two years, all the vacancies are going to one particular person, she alleged.
The rest of the people are being deprived of opportunities. Merit should not be an exception. Merit should be the rule, Iltija said.
Accusing the administration of systematically targeting Kashmiris in exams and jobs, she said, The government here is systematically punishing the Kashmiris. You are dismissing them from exams and jobs. Yesterday, 10 years later, God forbid, there is not a single day that our Kashmiri brothers and sisters are not included in the bureaucracy of Jammu and Kashmir.
So an institutional government-promoted apartheid is being carried out, because of which our youth, especially from Kashmir, are suffering. So we came here to protest and we wanted to remind the NC government to present the sub-committee report that you had promised, she added.
