The Omar Abdullah government approved a new reservation policy on Wednesday, reportedly increasing the share of general-category jobs and college seats to rectify what is widely seen as a skewed quota system, and possibly setting the stage for a fresh standoff.

The National Conference-led government has refused to reveal the details of the new policy — a poll promise — while sending it to lieutenant governor (LG) Manoj Sinha for approval. Kept guessing, several organisations have threatened protests if the changes turn out to be insufficient or “cosmetic”.

A controversial reservation system introduced by Sinha’s administration last year, before the Assembly elections, had put the general-category population of Jammu and Kashmir — who are the majority — at a gross disadvantage. The move had triggered outrage across the Union Territory.

The LG’s administration had granted a 10 per cent Scheduled Tribe quota to Paharis, extending the status to a linguistic group for the first time in the country. Paharis include both Muslims and Hindus, including upper
caste people from both communities.

Critics cited how the reservation policy pursued by successive LGs’ administrations since the 2019 constitutional changes had given 30-odd per cent of the population — who make up the reserved categories — a 70 per cent share in government jobs and professional-college seats.

In the rest of the country, the quota shares for people in the reserved categories are largely believed to be lower than their shares of the population.

The policy’s worst victims are Kashmiris, who make up around 50 per cent of the population of Jammu and Kashmir, and the upper caste Dogras. While a third of the Dogras — who account for about 25 per cent of the population — are Scheduled Castes, there are no SCs among the Kashmiris.

Before the 2019 scrapping of the special status, the total volume of reservations in Jammu and Kashmir was 50 per cent.

After coming to power last year, the Omar government had formed a cabinet sub-committee to introduce fairness into the reservation policy. After months of delay, the file was sent to Sinha’s office on Wednesday.

Tensions have flared with some media reports claiming that while the proportion of unreserved government jobs and professional-college seats has been increased, it’s still substantially lower than the general category’s share of the population.

The Open Merit Students Association said token cuts in one or two categories would not be accepted and that any incomplete reforms would be met with an agitation.

It said that forwarding the report to the LG without disclosing its contents to the public represented evasion rather than transparency. It asked the government to publish the document immediately.

The Association of Residents of Backwards Areas — representing people from backward areas across Jammu and Kashmir who are entitled to reservation irrespective of caste or community — too has issued a warning.

This category has faced the biggest assault from the post-2019 tinkering with reservation, watching its share cut from 20 to 10 per cent. Some reports have claimed the Omar government has proposed to reduce it further to 7 per cent.

The association said it would welcome a rational adjustment but “vulnerable groups” should not be deprived of their “only support mechanism”. It argued that many far-flung and mountainous regions still lack good roads and educational institutions.

MLA Sajjad Gani Lone, chairperson of the Opposition People’s Conference, warned against cuts to the Residents of Backwards Areas quota, calling it the “only reserved category (from which) Kashmiris benefited”.

Lone said that reducing it would lead to a “systematic exclusion of Kashmiris from the recruitment process”, and accused the National Conference government of repeating
past injustices.

Omar on Thursday claimed his cabinet had adopted a “fair and transparent process” and carried out a “detailed” reform.