Slamming the National Conference (NC) government for not slashing the high level of job reservation quota in J&K, PDP President and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that merit has become the biggest casualty, as students are left questioning why they should work hard or strive to be deserving when their efforts don’t lead to opportunities.

Mehbooba, who was talking to media-persons in Srinagar, asked Chief Minister Abdullah to find a way to resolve the issue of reservation saying leaving the matter for the courts was “very unfortunate.”

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Mehbooba said the people of J&K, especially the youth, voted for the NC in large numbers in the Assembly polls so that there would be rationalisation in the reservation and nobody’s rights would be snatched.

Referring to Omar Abdullah having sought six months time to resolve the issue, Mehbooba asked what will the open merit category students get if there is recruitment of lecturers, police, etc., in these six months?

“So, I appeal Abdullah, not to leave this issue to the courts, you have powers, you have the government, you have 50 MLAs, to find a way so that the economically weaker sections who have their own reservation are not affected but the open merit category students should get their share according to the population proportion and they should not wait for the court’s decision,” she said.

“We do not want any politics in it but we are pushing open merit students to the wall. The Chief Minister has sought six months’ time. NC has three MPs, including the Ladakh MP and 50 MLAs, why do they need six months? They think a court decision will come by and they will not have to do anything,” Mehbooba said.

She criticized the lack of action on key issues affecting the youth, particularly the neglect of merit in recruitment processes. She asked CM Abdullah to help the students like the PDP did in 2018 by bringing an order that put 75% seats for open merit.

She called for immediate intervention of CM to ensure fair representation for open merit candidates and urged political leaders to act rather than wait for court decisions.