Monga asks govt to put issuance of domicile certificates on hold

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Vice President and former MLC G N Monga today asked the BJP government to wait till the outcome of petitions challenging revocation of Article 370 in the Supreme Court before issuing domicile certificates to non-locals.

In a statement issued to press from here, he said that the BJP government’s unconstitutional decision taken on 5 August 2019 to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A has been challenged in the apex court and the outcome of the petitions is still to come.

“Both the S.O 1229 (E) Domicile law and S.O 166 prescribing the procedure for grant of Domicile Certificate have been made in exercise of power under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act 2019, which is under challenge in a number of petitions before the Supreme Court,” Monga said while terming the new Domicile rules against the wishes and interests of people of J&K, especially its youth.

“Issuing domicile certificates to non-locals and taking any decision over the issue which can have far-reaching consequences is morally and ethically wrong. The government must wait till the apex court decides about the petitions challenging August 5, 2019 decisions,” the Congress leader demanded.

He said the latest decision has triggered vehement criticism from residents of Jammu as well as Kashmir and Ladakh, who see the new domicile law, brought into force in April, as a bid to tweak the demography and deprive residents of government jobs and landholdings. “The new domicile law allows outsiders a claim on local jobs which are few and far,” Monga said.

The Congress leader said that the J&K administration has begun the recruitment process for over 8500 posts in Class-IV posts and the aim of issuing domicile certificates to outsiders is nothing but to ensure that they get the maximum jobs.

“Issuing order after order in times of pandemic will not change the reality on the ground. The reality as it stares at us is that people have not accepted the decisions of August 5,” he said. “Unemployment rate was already high in Jammu and Kashmir and the government sector was the only hope for unemployed educated youth. But now that right too has been snatched from them.”

He asked the government of India to immediately put the issuance of domicile certificates on hold.

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