SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir cabinet on Wednesday discussed key changes to the Union Territory’s reservation policy, with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the government has attempted to fulfil its promise to rationalise quotas without causing injustice to any community.

The meeting, chaired by the CM at his Jammu residence, examined the Cabinet Sub Committee’s report proposing an increase in the Open Merit (OM) quota, currently a little over 30%. The recommendations were deliberated for more than an hour, with ministers including Deputy CM Surinder Choudhary, Sakina Itoo, Javed Dar, Javed Rana, Satish Sharma and Chief Secretary Atal Duloo in attendance.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the reservation issue also figured in the cabinet meeting.

“It will be wrong on my part to discuss minutes of the cabinet meeting signed and forward to Lt Governor for approval. I can only say that effort has been made as was promised with people to rationalise the reservation policy. The effort has also been made not to do injustice with anybody,” the CM said.

“We took a lot of time because this is an issue on which doing politics is very easy and you must have seen it. Those who were criticising us till yesterday for doing nothing on reservation are now warning of agitation,” he said.

The CM said the cabinet has made an effort to adopt a fair and transparent process in rationalising reservations. “We have done a detailed exercise and every issue was discussed. It was deliberated more than once. It is for the third or fourth time that this issue was discussed in cabinet. We have made all efforts on our part to resolve this issue”

“Now the issue will go to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha,” he said.