Despite directions from both the Supreme Court and the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday, Jats demanding reservations in jobs and educational institutions said they will intensify their ongoing agitation following the death of a protester.
Vijay Singh Karwadhra, 62, who was amongst a group of protesters on hunger strike to include Jats in OBC at Mehuwala village in Haryana’s Fatehabad District, died of malnutrition and dehydration on Wednesday evening.
Incensed Jat leaders vowed to expand their agitation. “He sacrificed his very life for the community. We shall never allow his martyrdom to go in vain. Jat men, women and children will continue to block all major rail routes in Haryana till the day the sarkar in Delhi yields,” they told reporters firm on keeping Karwadhra’s dead body on the railway tracks and if necessary cremating him on the spot. Leaders of the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, who met with Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, were evidently not satisfied and left the meeting venue raising angry slogans. The Jat agitation resulting in the cancellation of more than 1,000 trains impacting on supplies of petroleum products, coal and a host of other commodities, is already estimated to have caused a `200 crores loss to the Indian Railways. Officials said the losses are expected to be manifold when power supply disruption owing to the shutting down of several major thermal power stations is accounted for.
But JASS leaders who met in Narwana were unwilling to relent. “We did not like his response,” organisational general secretary Mahender Punia said of the leaders’ meeting with PM Manmohan Singh on Monday.
The Punjab and Haryana high court meanwhile directed the protesters to vacate all railway tracks with immediate effect. A division bench, including Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi ordered deputy commissioners and police superintendents in all affected districts to ensure compliance.