In a major move to help non-locals staying in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir to get domicile status, the administration of the UT has recently granted domicile certificates to 25,000 non-locals to get a residency certificate for education, employment and buying land.
But days after 25,000 people including Navin Kumar Choudhary, a senior J&K cadre IAS officer from Bihar, were granted domicile certificates, National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday opposed the move terming it as ‘unconsituional and anti-people.
The new Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules 2020 allows non-locals to get a residency certificate for education, employment and buying land—in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
According to J&K Grant Domicile Certificate (Production) Rules, all those who have been living in Jammu and Kashmir for more than 15 years can apply for the certificate. Official records reveal that the government has received 33,157 applications for domicile certificates in J&K and over 25,000 people have been granted the citizenship certificate. Srinagar is the only district which has received 65 applications for domicile certificates but not a single one has been issued as of now, reveal government documents. The government has received nearly 32,000 applications in 10 districts of Jammu Division while as Kashmir has received only 720 applications. In Kashmir, the highest number of domicile certificates have been issued in Pulwama (153), followed by Anantnag (106), Kulgam (90), Baramulla (39), Shopian (20), Bandipora (10), Kupwara (10), Budgam (09), Ganderbal (1) and Srinagar (0).
In a statement to, NC’s chief spokesperson Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi said the party unequivocally rejects the “unconstitutional and anti people process of grant of domicile certificates to outsiders” and demanded immediate revocation of Domicile Order and Rules. NC vice president and former chief minister of the erstwhile state Omar Abdullah said the people of Jammu and Kashmir will be the sufferers of these new domicile rules.
“All our misgivings about the new domicile rules in J&K are coming to the fore. We in @JKNC_ opposed the changes because we could see the nefarious design behind the changes. The people of J&K on both sides of the Pir Panjal mountains will be the sufferers of these domicile rules,” he said in a Tweet.