Srinagar, Sep 16 (KNS) People's Conference President Sajad Lone on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah-led National Conference government, alleging "recruitment apartheid" against the inhabitants of the Kashmir Valley in gazetted appointments, and vowed to raise the issue in the upcoming Assembly session.

Citing recruitment figures, Lone said out of 55 officers selected in the JKAS and J&K Accounts (Gazetted) categories, only 10 are from the Kashmir Valley.

"So against a population ratio of 56 per cent, inhabitants of Kashmir have got 18 per cent of the jobs," he said.

He pointed out that the appointment orders were issued by the Chief Minister himself. "Incidentally appointment orders were given by CM sahib. Ideally he should have kept away," Lone said.

Terming the development "recruitment apartheid" and "persecution of the inhabitants of the Kashmir Valley," the People's Conference chief alleged it was "a strategy to disempower and marginalise the inhabitants of Kashmir Valley."

"I have all along maintained that reservations is a Jammu vs Kashmir issue, rooted in ethnically disempowering the inhabitants of the Valley," he said.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel

Lone further claimed that the "Kashmir region 56 per cent vs 18 per cent recruitment figure will not be changed if the so-called file sent by the elected government to the Union government is approved. At best it will increase to 19 per cent, against 56 per cent population."

Announcing his plan to take up the matter in the forthcoming Assembly session, Lone said, "I will be raising this issue in the Assembly through appropriate legislative devices."

He urged members across party lines to join him in highlighting the issue.

"I wish and hope that we together, across party lines are able to highlight the severity of this issue. And call a spade a spade. Which would mean saying it explicitly and unambiguously that the present reservation system in place is a methodology to disempower and relegate to the margins, the inhabitants of Kashmir Valley," Lone said. (KNS)