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| Singhal Committee recommendations the only solution to end conflict over NEET | | | Hari Om
People of Jammu province and Kashmir Valley are again up in arms against each other. What has set the people of Jammu province against their counterparts in Kashmir and vice-versa is the April 30 Supreme Court's reiteration that there will be two National Eligibility Entrance Tests (NEET) on May 1 and July 24 for admission to under graduate medical courses for 2016-17 across the nation, including Jammu and Kashmir, and that it will not re-look at its order, passed on April 28 rejecting Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi plea seeking modification in the order.
Kashmiri leaders of all shades of opinion, including separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and all civil society groups in the Valley have been opposing the apex court's order, saying that the order, if implemented, will, on the one hand, jeopardise the interest of Kashmiri candidates, and, on the other, erode the special status the state enjoys under Articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian Constitution. As for the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government, it has already approached the apex court and sought its indulgence so that Jammu and Kashmir is kept out of the ambit of the Supreme Court order. It has invoked both these Articles to make it point.
Contrarily, the people of Jammu province, especially the candidates desirous of admission to the medical and dental colleges across the country, including the professional institutions located in Jammu and Kashmir, have been batting for the NEET. Their argument is that the Jammu and Kashmir Competent Authority, which has been conducting entrance test for admission to medical and engineering courses since 1987, is fundamentally Kashmir-centric and biased against them. They say they would obtain their due share only if the Jammu and Kashmir Competent Authority is disbanded and the state is brought under the ambit of the Supreme Court's order.
As an alternative, the concerned citizens of Jammu province have suggested another way out. They have demanded implementation of the recommendations of the 1999 Singhal Committee, which was set up by the Jammu and Kashmir Government on April 7, 1998, to meet the demand of the agitating student community in Jammu.
The three-member committee, which was headed by RP Singhal, former Chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education, had in its January 13, 1999 report, candidly acknowledged that the Jammu youth never got its due share in the state's professional and technical institutions and that the Kashmiri youth got preferential and differential treatment. It had, inter-alia, said: "The selection test conducted by the Competent Authority did not ensure a fair share to Jammu region with the result that over the last few yeas the number of seats got by Jammu region was constantly declining while that got by Kashmir division was constantly increasing disproportionately to the size of population of the two regions…The result of class XII examination of Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education for Jammu and Kashmir divisions was about 55 per cement and 14 per cent, respectively, which picture was not reflected in the Entrance Test selection list for MBBS/BDS 1997-1998" (Report of the Committee set up by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, January 13, 1999, P. 4)
The Committee also referred to in its report the share of Jammu division and Kashmir division in selections for admission to MBBS colleges between 1987 and 1997. The ratio of Kashmiri students and Jammu students in selections for admission to MBBS colleges 1987-1997, according to the report, was:
Year Kashmir Jammu
1987 46.5% 53.5%
1988 52.97% 47.03%
1989 55% 45%
1990 40% 60%
1991 48% 52%
1993 48% 52%
1994 62% 38%
1995 59% 41%
1996 64% 36%
1997 80% 20%
To end the regional disparity, the committee recommended that all the seats available in the professional colleges, located in Kashmir, should be made the sole preserve of Kashmiri youth and all the seats available in the Jammu-based professional and technical colleges should be made the sole preserve of the Jammu youth.
Its recommendation read like this: "The Committee recommends that, as is the existing practice for admission to Polytechnic courses where one Common Entrance Test is held by the Competent Authority for both the Divisions (Jammu Division and Kashmir Division), but the selection list is declared separately for the two divisions, the Competent Authority may hold one Common Entrance Test for the two divisions for Medical and Engineering courses, but the selection lists may be separately issued for the two divisions. The admissions in these colleges (Government as well as private) should be made by the respective Universities in accordance with the prevalent admission rules under their Acts. The seats in Jammu colleges (Medical as well as Engineering) should be earmarked for candidates belonging to Jammu region and those in Kashmir colleges be earmarked for candidates belonging to Kashmir region. A certain number of seats may be reserved in each of the University (Jammu University as well as Kashmir University) for Ladakh region in proportion to its population" (Ibid., p. 20).
It needs to be underlined that Jammu province had witnessed massive political explosions between February 28 and May 7, 1998 after the Competent Authority made public the MBBS/BDS selection list for 1998-1999. All educations institutions, including schools, colleges and universities remained closed for more than two months. The courts also couldn't function during this period of unrest across Jammu province. Besides, Jammu observed complete bandh for 19 long days and there were police-students clashes on an unprecedented scale. The fact of the matter is that the agitating student community -- ably backed by the people of Jammu region -- had virtually brought the Government of Farooq Abdullah to their knees. Had he not set the Committee, his Government would have surely collapsed like house of cards. Such was the nature and magnitude of the anti-government movement over the issue of exclusion of Jammu youth from the selection list.
It is a different story that the government of Farooq Abdullah disappointed the People of Jammu province by not implementing the recommendations of the Singhal Committee. Those who succeeded Farooq Abdullah also did nothing in this regard. It's no wonder then that the plight of the Jammu youth has not changed a bit even after 1999 and that they are chaffing and seething with anger. The worst part of the whole situation has been the indifferent attitude of all the political parties, including the BJP, to the unjust, invidious and humiliating distinctions being made between the Kashmiri youth and the Jammu youth by the competent authorities.
It would be only desirable to consider one of the demands - Bring Jammu and Kashmir under the ambit of the Supreme Court order or implement the recommendations of the Singhal Committee. |
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