RESERVATION SIT-IN PROTEST: Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah placed under house arrest

STC NEWS DESK
SRINAGAR, DECEMBER 28 (STC): National Conference MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Sunday has been placed under house arrest ahead of a scheduled protest by Open Merit category aspirants, stated his aides. Additional security forces were deployed outside the MP’s residence.
The deployment of police and paramilitary personnel outside Ruhullah’s residence prevented him from participating in the protest against the reservation policy.
The police had officially informed the MP that he had been placed under house arrest and barred from stepping outside, reads the X post of the Office of Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi. The post also claimed that students had been arrested late Saturday night and that their families were intimidated by the police for demanding a “fair chance at success through a rational reservation policy.”
It’s pertinent to mention that Ruhullah had earlier issued an ultimatum to the Jammu and Kashmir administration over the long-pending demand for rationalisation of reservations, stating that he would join protesting students and unemployed youth if the government failed to engage with them by Saturday.
He said that if no talks were held, he would sit with the students on Sunday at the same venue where a similar protest was held in December last year.
Notably. the cabinet in this month approved a revised reservation framework, including a reduction in quotas under categories such as Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Reserved Backward Areas(RBA), with the stated aim of increasing seats under Open Merit.
The file is yet to be approved by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha.
Meanwhile, security has been deployed in Polo View Market and S.K. Park in Srinagar ahead of MP Agha Ruhullah Mehdi’s proposed sit-in protest over reservation rationalisation. The gates of S.K. Park were locked, with police and security forces positioned inside and outside the area to prevent gatherings. PDP MLA Waheed Para was not allowed to step out of his residence in Barzulla, where police and forces were deployed at the main gate.
(Straight Talk Communications)