Rajasthan Jats threaten stir for quota, rule out talks
BHARATPUR: Claiming that they have been cheated by the Rajasthan government, the Jat community in Bharatpur and Dholpur districts Sunday announced to relaunch their agitation from August 23 for demanding reservation under other backward class (OBC) quota.
This comes two days after the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in state said that it will raise the OBC quota from the present 21% to 26% for granting 5% reservation to Gujjars and four other castes.
Social Justice minister Arun Chaturvedi, who announced the decision saying a bill to this effect will be introduced in the upcoming Monsoon session, didn’t say anything about the Jats in the two districts who have been denied quota benefits.
The Bharatpur-Dholpur Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti said the government had assured the community members that it will grant them quota benefits through a decision to be taken up by the cabinet on August 16. Samiti’s convenor Nem Singh said it was one of the conditions that the government had agreed to when it asked the community leaders to withdraw their agitation in June.
“The government has cheated us. It failed to call a cabinet meeting to sanction reservation for community even two months after it reached a pact with the community to withdraw the agitation,” Singh said.
He said meetings are being organised in every village to drum up support for the agitation. All rail, road routes passing through the Bharatpur will be blocked. Milk, water, and electric supply will also be interrupted, he warned.
Singh claimed that no talks will be held with the government and no fresh pacts will be signed. “The OBC commission had submitted its survey report with the government two months ago. The government, however, is dilly-dallying,” he said.
The state government has issued a notification for recruiting 13,000 police constables. Samiti members said thousands of youths from the community would not be allowed to take part in the recruitment drive as they are now over the age limit.
“However, if the community is granted reservation under OBC quota, they will be given a relaxation of three years and would thus be eligible to join the police recruitment drive,” they said. The Jat leaders accused social justice minister Arun Chaturvedi of “misguiding the government over quota for Jats” even though government had given a written assurance to call the cabinet meeting within a month.
The agitation was called off after a pact was signed between secretary, social justice department BL Jatavat, and the Jat leaders on June 24. The central government had excluded Jats from Bharatpur and Dholpur districts from the OBC list, as the two erstwhile princely states had been ruled by Jats.
Later the Rajasthan government in 1999 granted the Jats in the two districts reservation under OBC category, an order that was quashed by the Rajasthan High Court in August 2015. The court had also ordered a review of the status of all communities under the OBC.
A state OBC Commission was constituted, which completed the survey in February 2016 and submitted a 600-page survey report to the government.
While the Raje government is yet to come clear on granting reservation benefits to Jats, it announced to raise the OBC quota by 5% for granting reservation to Gujjars and other castes.