Srinagar, June 23 -- Amid mounting public pressure and student protests over the shrinking share of open merit in Jammu and Kashmir's job reservations, a senior cabinet minister said that the Union Territory government has very limited jurisdiction over the matter due to constitutional constraints and parliamentary enactments.

"Let me be honest, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir cannot do much in terms of fundamentally altering the reservation matrix. A majority of the reservation structure now applicable in the Union Territory flows directly from Parliamentary legislation, particularly post-2019," the minister told Kashmir News Service (KNS) on condition of anonymity.

He said that there is a little leeway within the framework, and th...