Srinagar Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the bill aimed at providing Reservation to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, a day after it was introduced in the lower house of the Parliament.”With this, justice will be ensured to the citizens of Other Backward Classes of Jammu and Kashmir for the first time after 75 years of independence,” reads a statement by the House. In his reply to the discussion on the bill in the Lok Sabha, Rai said he made no reference to the opposition demand for the government to spell out a time frame for holding of elections in Jammu and Kashmir and the restoration of statehood.Rai said the opposition members, participating in the debate, were resorting to a drama of supporting the bill granting reservation to OBCs in panchayats and municipalities in Jammu and Kashmir and were raising other issues.”I wish to make one thing clear, no matter how much you go around in circles, but in Jammu and Kashmir wherever you go you will only hear ‘Modi, Modi’ and the development ushered in by Modi,” the minister said.

Reader correspondent