Srinagar, June 23 (IANS) A meeting of the J&K Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, was held here on Tuesday in which several important administrative issues, including the Centre’s response to the proposals of the cabinet sub-committee on reservations were discussed.

“Chief Minister chaired a meeting of the Council of Ministers at the Civil Secretariat, Srinagar today. The meeting deliberated on a range of proposals and policy matters aimed at strengthening governance, accelerating development and improving public service delivery across Jammu & Kashmir,” the CM’s Office said in a post on X.

On December 10, 2024, the J&K Cabinet set up the cabinet sub-committee, which submitted its report after six months on June 10, 2025.

The Cabinet then sought advice from the Law Department and finalised the report accordingly. It approved the report on December 4, 2025 and sent it to the Lieutenant Governor.

According to the report, the Open Merit jobs and seats were proposed to go up to 40 per cent, as against the present 30 per cent.

At present, reservations, including those for economically weaker sections, have gone up to 70 per cent in J&K, leaving only 30 per cent jobs and seats for Open Merit candidates, resulting in strong resentment among the youth.

Currently, the ST-I, ST-II, RBA, and EWS categories each have 10 per cent reservation, while the Scheduled Castes and OBCs each have 8 per cent quota, and the ALC/IB category has 4 per cent reservation.

Besides, there is a 10 per cent horizontal reservation, including 6 per cent to ex-servicemen and four per cent to Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

The L-G had returned the cabinet recommendations to the J&K government without approving them, along with observations from the Ministry of Home Affairs on the issue of reservations in the UT.

The J&K cabinet is now trying to navigate its way to ensure that the open merit quota goes up to at least 40 per cent for recruitments in government jobs and in admissions to professional colleges, etc.

–IANS

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