HC puts Haryana on notice on PIL apprehending blockades
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday put Haryana government on notice on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the state to ensure that road and rail traffic are not disrupted by pro-quota Jat protesters in Haryana.
The high court bench of justices SS Saron and Hari Pal Verma has sought response by March 15 on the petition filed by a high court lawyer, Arvind Seth.
The court was informed that there is an apprehension that the people sitting on dharnas in various parts of the state are likely to block the highways to press for their demands that can lead to inconvenience to the public. “In 2016, there were rampant blockades on the national and state highways, due to which public at large suffered untold hardships,” the petitioner told the court.
The court was apprised that in the previous agitations, many people died apart from damage to the public and private properties. The government is not taking all preventive measures so as to maintain law and order situation.
The court was urged to direct the government to take all preventive measures to maintain public order, safeguard public and private properties and action against the protesters for disruption of public order. CHANDIGARH: In what is unlikely to help the Haryana government’s efforts to end the stalemate with agitating pro-quota groups through a dialogue, the fourmember committee constituted to review criminal cases registered against the Jat protesters during last year’s stir failed to make any headway on Tuesday.
The committee, comprising two advocates each from the Haryana government and the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS), which met in Chandigarh, began by discussing the cases registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into arson, loot and violence during the quota stir in February 2016.
“The representatives of Jat leaders began by raising the CBI cases among others, but they were informed that cases being investigated by the CBI cannot be withdrawn by the state government,”