Talks indecisive, Jats won’t halt protests

CHANDIGARH: Talks between the officers panel appointed by the Haryana Government and the AllIndia Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti in Panipat today remained cordial but inconclusive The Jats will therefore continue to hold dharnas No date has been fixed for the second round of talks Chief Secretary DS Dhesi who heads the officers committee said

Updated At : 07:33 AM Feb 12, 2017 IST

Malik said February 19 would be observed as ‘Balidan Divas’ in memory of those killed during last year’s agitation. Tribune file photo

Geetanjali Gayatri

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 11

Talks between the officers’ panel appointed by the Haryana Government and the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti in Panipat today remained “cordial but inconclusive”. The Jats will, therefore, continue to hold dharnas. No date has been fixed for the second round of talks, Chief Secretary DS Dhesi, who heads the officers’ committee, said.

The meeting lasted three-and-a-half hours. The Jats were led by UP leader Yashpal Malik, who hit out at certain field officers in Rohtak, Kaithal and Hisar, alleging they had been “vitiating” the atmosphere by denying or delaying permission for dharnas and threatening sarpanches.

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“We have told the panel that video-recording of dharnas must stop, if there is to be another round of talks. We submitted a seven-point charter. One of our key demands is police cases against Jats during the 2016 stir be dropped. Till our demands are met, the dharnas will continue,” Malik said, adding the the ball was now in CM’s court.

The committee is learnt to have told the Jat delegation that the government had already dropped 70 per cent cases and the remaining cases “will be placed before the government”. Sources said the issue was ticklish on which the CM alone could take a call.

“The other grievances of the protesters are paltry and pose no difficulty,” the sources claimed.

Besides cancellation of cases, the Jats are demanding OBC status and that they be included in the Ninth List of the Constitution, government jobs for the kin of those “martyred” or injured during last year’s stir, release of youths from jails, a probe by the Parliamentary Ethics Committee into the speeches by BJP MP Rajkumar Saini and a criminal case against him and his associates for “spreading hatred”.

Malik said February 19 would be observed as ‘Balidan Divas’ in memory of those killed during last year’s agitation. The main Opposition party in Haryana, the INLD, has come out in support of the agitating Jats and asked the government to meet their demands.

Thirty persons were killed and property worth crores was damaged in Haryana during last year’s Jat stir. Rohtak and neighbouring districts, including Sonepat and Jhajjar, were the worst-hit.