STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Enraged over the State Government for neglecting the recommendation of according ST status to Kolis along with the Pahari speaking people, scores of Panther Party workers including the members of Koli community spearheaded by Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and Yash Paul Kundal State President Young Panthers held a demonstration at Exhibition Ground, here on Friday. The Panthers activists raised slogans against the BJP and the State Government for ignoring the said community despite their legitimate claims for inclusion in the said category.
Flaying the State Government and BJP in particular for depriving the Kolis of their genuine rights, Harsh described it as yet another venomous doze of discrimination administered to the divested Jammu region.
He divulged that while the State cabinet had recommended the grant of ST status to Pahari speaking people in the month of August this year, it blatantly ignored Kolis despite incorporated commitment of State government in the Agenda of Alliance besides BJP’s tall election promises.
He deplored that Koli community which inhabited the far flung areas of District Kathua, Udhampur, Doda and Ramban qualified for ST status in view of their cultural distinctiveness and vulnerable socio-economic conditions were made to suffer miserably. He however regretted that not a single BJP MLA of the said area promoted their cause in the Assembly or outside and the ministers from Jammu region were mute spectators when the State cabinet ignored the Koli community from ST status in its deliberations.
Reiterating the demand of Koli’s for inclusion in ST category, Harsh stated that Koli and Sippis belong to the same family having same culture, occupation, language, economic and social status and residing in hilly area having negligible land owner ship and are dependent upon rearing of animals. He flayed the non chalant attitude of the concerned authorities towards the tribal community. He said that while the grant of ST status to Gaddis, Sippis earlier and now to Paharis was praiseworthy but the inadvertent omission of Kolis who belonged to marginalised communities needed to be rectified. He adjured the Chief Minister to take notice of the genuine grievance of the Koli community and sought initiation of appropriate steps for inclusion of the said class in ST category.
Among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Partap Singh, Nirmal Kishore, Purshotam Parihar, Udhayveer, Khajoor Singh, Narinder Sharma, Satvir, Ajeet Sharma, Rajinder Singh, Karnail Singh, Satpal, Romesh Verma, Hukam Chand, Madan Lal, Vishal Kumar, Yog Raj, Jagdish Chander and Ganesh Dass.
