IAS officer, 25,000 others get domicile certificates in J&K

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 26

Choudhary is among the 25,000 persons to be granted the domicile rights in the Union Territory (UT), who will be eligible for owning property, education and employment.

Choudhary, who hails from Bihar, has been granted the domicile in Jammu district’s Gandhinagar tehsil.

“This is to certify Shri Navin K Choudhary, son of Shri Deokant Choudhary, resident of, at present, Gandhi Nagar, Jammu, is a domicile of the UT of J&K,” reads the domicile certificate issued by tehsildar Bahu, Rohit Sharma.

On May 18, under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, the Central government had abolished the erstwhile State Subject laws which, as per Article 35A, granted residential rights to Jammu and Kashmir natives.

As per J&K Grant Domicile Certificate (Production) Rules, all those persons who have been living in Jammu and Kashmir for more than 15 years can apply for the certificate.

So far, the government has received 33,157 applications for domicile certificates, of which over 25,000 applicants have been granted these.

A total of 32,000 persons have applied in 10 districts of the Jammu division, while Kashmir has received only 720 applications. The highest number, 8,500, of these certificates have been issued in Doda, 6,214 in Rajouri, 6,123 in Poonch and 2,820 in Jammu. Nearly 414 domicile certificates are under process in Jammu.

In Kashmir, the highest number of domicile certificates have been issued in Pulwama (153), while Anantnag has been issued 106 certificates. The others to get certificates are Kulgam (90), Baramulla (39), Shopian (20), Bandipora (10), Kupwara (10), Budgam (09), Ganderbal (1) and Srinagar (0).

Officials said hundreds of West Pakistan refugees and Valmiki Samaj members, who were invited to Jammu in 1957 when local sanitation workers went on strike, have been granted the certificates.

If any tehsildar fails to issue a domicile certificate to applicants on time, he will be penalised and lose up to Rs 50,000 from his salary.