Keralam

25 Mar 2011

Protestors of the Jat community have continued their agitation over reservations in government jobs and educational institutes, despite orders from the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing them to vacate the rail tracks blocked by them, immediately. A division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court headed by the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had passed the order on Thursday and a copy of the judgement has been served to the Jat leaders in all districts by the respective Deputy Commissioners as per the direction of the court. The agitators in Haryana have countered the court order, saying that the court should ask the resolve their issue.
Jat leader, Mahendra Singh Punia, said: " The honorable court has given orders to vacate the tracks but it should also direct the government to look into our issue and find us a solution," adding that if force was used on them, the situation would become ugly. He said: " We have demonstrated in a peaceful manner from 6th March till today. If we are removed by force, it will spark violence and the matter will go out of control for the local administrative officials." Meanwhile, protestors were seen literally living on the tracks under temporary tents and performing 'havans' to ward off evil. The protestors have blocked railway tracks in nearly 15 places across Haryana, hitting train services, with several trains off schedule and many cancelled.

The Jats are considered a wealthy class although in a couple of states they are bracketed with other backward classes that enjoy quotas. The Jats are demanding 27 per cent reservation in educational institutes and Central jobs under the OBC category. They had also threatened to cut off Delhi from the rest of north India in the next phase of their stir if the demand was not fulfilled by March 28. The agitating Jats had earlier cleared the railway tracks near Kafoorpur in Uttar Pradesh's J P Nagar District following an order from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.