Jats resume protest for quota in Bharatpur

People belonging to the Jat community on Thursday launched an indefinite sit-in along Mathura highway in Rarah village demanding to be granted OBC status that would give them reservation in education and jobs.

The agitation resumed after a 15-day deadline set by the community for the government to act on their demand expired on May 24.

The sit-in began after paying tribute to famers killed in police firing in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur on June 6.

Bharatpur-Dholpur Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti convener Nem Singh said they would wait till Saturday for the government to seek report of survey from the OBC Commission, otherwise they would block rail and road traffic.

The sit-in site is close to the Mumbai-Delhi railway track and Bharatpur-Mathura highway.

The site is surrounded by Jaghina, Santruk, Ajaan and Takha villages, where Jats live in large number.

Singh said the government has been misguiding the community for one-and-half year to fulfil its demands for reservation. “The community is prepared to sacrifice for its children’s future.”

“All Jat public representatives of the ruling BJP will be boycotted during election if they don’t support the stir,” Singh said.

Meanwhile, OBC Commission secretary Hari Kumar Godara said: “We will handed over the survey report to government within two or three days.”

State health minister Kalicharan Saraf, who is in Bharatpur on a day-long tour, appealed to Jat leaders to maintain peace.

The agitators should talk to the government to know the progress then can launch the agitation if they don’t agree with the government, Saraf said.

Bharatpur collector Narendra Kumar Gupta said: “We are convincing Jats leader to maintain law and order.”

“I have interacted with the commission’s officials where they assured us to legal sanction for survey report and submitted to government within three days,” he said.

Bharatpur’s superintendent of police Anil Kumar Tank said police along with a company of Railway Police personnel were deployed to maintain law and order in the area.

“I ordered to manage additional police force in reserve in police line. Officials were appointed to inspect situation in different places and camp spot,” he said.

On August 10, 2015, the Rajasthan high court quashed the 1999 state government order as saying no survey was done before giving reservation to Jats.

The court had asked the government to set up a commission to review the status of OBC community in Bharatpur and Dholpur districts in four months.

Barring Jats from Bharatpur and Dholpur, others in the state are getting benefit of reservation under the OBC category both in centre and state.

Jats from two districts were excluded by the Centre while they got reservation in October 1999 as they belong to the ruling class.

The state government already constituted the OBC Commission and it completed survey report in last February but government has still not accepted the survey report from commission.

The survey report was completed of 14,000 Jats families in both district.