Overview
- Open Merit student groups cancelled a planned Srinagar sit-in after police confined several political leaders to their homes and sealed the Polo View venue.
- Those restricted included NC MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, PDP legislator Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, PDP leader Iltija Mufti and former Srinagar mayor Junaid Mattu, while Mehbooba Mufti also said she was placed under house arrest.
- Organisers and aides reported preventive detentions of student activists and heavy security deployments, calling the move a pre-emptive clampdown on a peaceful demonstration.
- Under the current framework, roughly 40% of government jobs are available to open merit candidates with over 60% reserved across categories, a distribution that has fueled months of student-led agitation.
- The government says the cabinet has approved a sub-committee recommendation to raise the open merit share to about 50% by cutting EWS and RBA quotas, with Omar Abdullah rejecting street pressure and party rifts flaring as the file awaits Manoj Sinha’s approval.