Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

ravi.khajuria@htlive.com

jammu : As many as 37 members of various organisations on Thursday met the foreign envoy and lamented how Article 370 was grossly discriminatory.

The 25-member delegation of the foreign envoy arrived here in Jammu on Thursday on the last leg of its two-day visit as part of a Union government-facilitated trip to help them have a first-hand assessment of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Radhika Gill, an athlete who belongs to Valimiki community, narrated to the envoys that how she was refused a job by the BSF because she was not a permanent resident of J&K.

She also apprised the delegates about how members of the community could only apply for the job of sweepers in municipal corporations, despite higher qualification.

“I also told them that how revocation of Article 370 and 35-A brought to an end discrimination that was being meted out to us,” she said.

Brought to J&K in 1957 from Gurdaspur and Amritsar in Punjab on the assurance of the then prime minister of J&K, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed that they will be given permanent resident status, members of the Valmiki community were deprived of citizenship rights.

Sandhya Dhar, a physically challenged person, briefed the visiting envoy that how the central disability Act was not implemented in J&K due to special status and denied physically challenged persons of the benefits.

Labha Ram Gandhi, president of the West Pak Refugees Action Committee, said that we told them that the discrimination against us and our children ended on August 5 last year.

Similarly, Rashmi Sharma and Anu Mankotia, who married non-permanent residents of J&K, narrated that how their children and husband were not considered permanent residents of the erstwhile state and how their children were deprived of inheriting their properties in J&K because of Article 370.

Members of the Gujjar community Abbas Choudhary, Asif Choudhary and Ayub Choudhary stated that STs in J&K were the worst victims of the special status because they were never given any political reservation.

A delegation of Kashmiri Pandits briefed about the mass exodus of the Pandit community in 1990 from Kashmir after Pakistan-sponsored terrorism erupted there and how they were reduced to refugees in their own country.

Earlier, during the day the envoys met chief justice of the J&K high court Geeta Mittal and Lieutenant governor GC Murmu and were briefed by the army .