Tourists enjoy snow scooter at ski resort in Gulmarg on New Year

JAMMU: Following opposition from all mainstream political parties to removal of the domicile provision for government jobs in J&K and reports that the Centre has agreed to restore the provision, the J&K high court on Tuesday evening withdrew its notification, inviting applications for 33 non-gazetted posts from aspirants across the country.

The move had sparked fear that the J&K administration was taking away government job reservation for “permanent residents” in the aftermath of nullification of Articles 370 and 35A on August 5 last year.

According to official sources, the central government is likely to issue a notification in the next three-four days to include domicile provision and job reservation in the executive order to be issued by the ministry of home affairs in relation to J&K.

The sources said the notification is likely to have the clause that any Indian citizen can acquire residency of J&K only after staying in the UT uninterruptedly for a period of 15 years. However, exemption may be offered to IAS and IPS officers, and their families, who have worked in J&K, besides armed forces personnel from any part of the country, the sources disclosed.

During the passage of J&K reorganization bill on August 5 last year, Parliament had retained as many as 166 local laws, a senior official in the UT law department said.

The reorganization of the erstwhile state has granted citizenship to 1.3 lakh west-Pakistani refugees settled in Jammu, Gokhras and Valmikis, who have stayed put in J&K since 1947.

The central government has already retained the local Public Service Commission, Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) and other recruitment boards in the UT in order to make recruitments to various departments exclusively for “permanent residents” of J&K.

Withdrawing the recruitment notification, the J&K high court registrar general said on the HC website: “It is hereby notified for information of all the concerned that the advertisement Notice No. 09/2019 dated 26.12.2019, whereby applications were invited for different posts in Non-Gazetted category in the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir , stands withdrawn with immediate effect under No.977/NG on December 31, 2019.”

In the now-withdrawn notification, nearly 17 of the 33 posts were kept under “OM (open merit)” category, throwing them open for appointment of aspirants from across the country. The rest were reserved for local SC, ST and other such categories.

Meanwhile, local BJP leaders have stepped up their demand for retention of domicile and job reservation provisions to protect the interests of the UT’s unemployed youths. Earlier, J&K BJP president Ravindra Raina had told TOI that the local leadership would take up the issue with the BJP high command because throwing open of J&K government jobs to “outsiders” would alienate the local unemployed youths further.

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