The Jammu and Kashmir administration has now made it mandatory for its officers to issue domicile certificates to Permanent Resident Certificate holders and migrants in a mere five days, against 15 days earlier.

“Govt fixes a time limit of 5 working days for issuing a domicile certificate to PRC holders and migrants. Reduces from earlier 15 days. Process made extremely simple,” a tweet by the department of Information and Public Relations said on Tuesday night.

PRC holders are those residents who had exclusive rights over land and jobs in Jammu and Kashmir before the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in August last year.

Many people in the Valley believe the state’s special status was scrapped to change its Muslim-majority status by settling outsiders.

The government has come up with a series of directives in the last few months to facilitate the process of issuing the domicile certificates.

In May, the government imposed an extraordinary penalty of Rs 50,000 on the officers tasked to issue these certificates if they delay in issuing domicile certificates to certain classes of outsiders within seven days of the verification.

Anyone who has resided in Jammu and Kashmir for a period of 15 years or has studied here for seven years or appeared in Class X and XII examinations in its educational institutions is eligible for the certificates.

Some compared the timeline with never-ending investigations in into alleged human rights violations by security forces, referring to recent alleged fake encounter in which three civilians were allegedly killed in Shopian and declared militants.

The government announcement came a day after lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Sunday directed the officers concerned to speed up the process of issuance and delivery of domicile certificates in a “hassle-free way”. He appreciated the “enthusiasm” shown by the applicants.

The government claims there was 90 per cent pendency of online applications for domicile certificates and directed the officers to speed up the process through online mode. Lakhs have already got these certificates, mostly in Jammu.

Official sources said the pendency was a result of non-availability of high speed 4G Internet in the Union Territory.Union minister Jitendra Singh had on Sunday said PRC holders will also need a domicile certificate to apply for jobs and to get other benefits.