CPM backs reservation for Kashmiri students outside J&K

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of CPI (M) sought PM`s intervention to ensure reservation and scholarship for the Kashmiri students outside the state.

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir unit of CPI (M) today sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh`s intervention to ensure reservation and scholarship for the Kashmiri students outside the state.

"Prime Minister should personally intervene to get the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) decision reviewed with regard to rejection of a proposal for reservation and scholarship for the Kashmiri students," state secretary of CPI(M) M Y Tarigami said in a statement here. Quoting media reports about rejection of a proposal by MHRD for reservation and scholarship for the Kashmiri students, Tarigami said it is the moral responsibility of the entire country to come forward to help Kashmiri students as not only the state?s economy was badly affected during the turmoil but the education sector was also hit hard putting future of thousands of students at stake. The recommendations by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) advocating reservation for youths of the state in educational and professional institutions in different states of the country was absolutely a reflection of aspirations of students` community that suffered a lot due to turmoil, he said. "As the education system in Jammu and Kashmir is still to recover from turmoil tremors and far from its revamping, the Prime Minister should intervene and get the decision reviewed taking the state as a special case," he said. The reservation sought in the backdrop of the 2010 unrest is based on the ground reality that educational institutions, like many sectors, remained closed for most part of the year, Tarigami said. "It is not only 2010 unrest but the education in Kashmir was the worst hit sector since the inception of the turmoil in 1989. The NCMEI has rightly said that the students here not only feel depressed, alienated but also terribly frustrated due to continued disturbance in the valley," he said. In view of stiff competition outside state, Tarigami said the Kashmiris students feel dejected in absence of proper schooling, training and guidance. "The MHRD should reconsider its decision keeping in view the pressing circumstances under which the Kashmiris students go outside and attend the professional entrance examinations. Reservation and scholarship would provide a healing effect on them," he said. PTI