Married in Punjab, Hry, Rajasthan girls seek quotas in jobs

 Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, March 16

Even as the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana have been fighting over the vexed issue of the SYL canal, another major issue has cropped up. And this time, it's on recruitments. 

The reserved category women applicants, who are married in Punjab but originally hail from neighbouring states, mainly Haryana, have been crying foul as they have been told that they are ineligible for the ongoing recruitment for ETT teachers. 

Nearly 200 such affected SC/BC/OBC women candidates, most of whom hail from Haryana and Rajasthan and are now settled in Jalandhar, Patiala, Abohar and Fazilka, are all set to file a petition on the matter. The candidates have said that they got to know about their eligibility when they appeared for job counselling being conducted by the Education Recruitment Board for as many as 3,522 posts.

Sharanjit Kaur, who was born and brought up in Kaithal, got married at Patran and is now settled in Jalandhar, says, "Now that I have my voter card, Aadhar card and even my BC card from Punjab and I have my family in Punjab, how can I go back to Haryana to take a job? If Punjab was not going to give me any benefit, why did they make a BC card for me?"

The women candidates said that they have decided to take the matter to the court to fight for their rights. Kaushalya Devi Suman Devi, Priyanka Rani  and Neetu Bala of Fazilka, Saroj Devarath and Bimla Devi from Abohar, Roopinder Kaur from Patiala, Paramjit Kaurm from Shutrana, Rajdeep Kaur from Nabha and Birpal Kaur from Mansa and other candidates are in the process of filing a petition on the matter. The candidates have said that they have been meeting various officials from the welfare department asking them to take up their case. 

Kirpa Shankar Saroj, secretary, Welfare of SCs and BCs, said, "There is a GOI circular which says that the reservation policy does not apply on migrants from other states but only the natives of the original state owing to which we cannot adjust them as of now. But in any case, a proposal is being sent to the CM on their issue for consideration". The women candidates, however, are not ready to buy the concept of migrants. "We have come here by virtue of marriage and have not migrated with our families," they said.