Jat leaders may have to pay for quota stir losses

Haryana may face yet another Jat agitation as their leaders have been served notices for recovery of losses to the public and private properties in the violence during the stir they had led eight months ago for reservation to the job community in employment and college admissions.

The leaders have been already asked to give details of their moveable and immoveable properties for the recovery, citing a Supreme Court judgment for recovering the losses from the agitationists. Those who have been served the notices include the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti members and "other leading persons," holding them as abettors and organisers of the agitation in February in which properties worth crores were burnt and destroyed.

The disclosure of the notices issued by the deputy commissioners of various districts came in an affidavit of Haryana Chief Secretary Depinder Singh Dheshi placed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Justice Rajan Gupta on Friday in response to a contempt petition filed by the Anti-corruption Federation of India, a Ludhiana-based NGO.

The October 18 affidavit commits the state government to comply with the SC directions in the judgment in the case of the destruction of public and private properties in Andhra Pradesh.

The state counsel told the court that the Haryana government has taken all necessary steps to prevent repeat of the February violence. He said Haryana’s additional chief secretary (Home) had issued elaborate guidelines in this regard on May 30 for maintenance of law and order since the Jat leaders keep threatening another agitation.