M A I N   N E W S

Include Jat Sikhs in OBC list: Akalis to Centre
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23
The core committee of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today demanded that Jat Sikhs be included in the Centre’s list of Other Backward Classes (OBC). An official press release said that the meeting chaired by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the exclusion of the community from the list and described it as a part of the Congress-ruled Centre’s continuing policy of discrimination against the community.

He said that the party would raise the issue at the highest level at the Centre.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the Jat Sikh community had worked hard to free the country from hunger and food shortages.

Others present on the occasion included party secretary general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, senior vice-president Ranjit Singh Brahampura, SGPC president Avtar Singh was also present. Rajya Sabha MP Dr Manohar Singh Gill, in a letter to the PM, has written: “Last year, when an investigation was launched into the status of Jats by the Government of India, I was surprised to find that the Jat Sikhs of Punjab were not included in the probe launched in other states of the North. I wrote to you -- pointing this out -- but with no apparent results. Now, we find that the Cabinet has approved the inclusion of Jats in all the states, barring Sikh Jats of Punjab, in the OBC category.”

“I write this with anguish and in hope that this clear discrimination against Punjab and its Sikh peasantry will be immediately redressed,” he said.