AAP government may hold talks with Jat leaders

With the Jat community threatening to launch a fresh agitation for quotas in Haryana, the AAP government is in the process of taking a series of measures to ensure supply of essential commodities is not affected.

There are indications that the city government may rope in its legislators to hold talks with the community leaders in 15-Jat dominated constituencies to maintain law and order in the city.

In February, an agitation on the same issue in Haryana had spread its tentacles to Delhi, with members of the protesting community blocking traffic in the border areas, which led to major traffic snarls in outer and other parts of the city.

The supply of drinking water was badly affected in Dwarka and its surrounding areas as the agitators damaged the Munak Canal in Haryana which supplies 558 million gallons of water a day to the city.

In Haryana, sarpanchs of 63 villages are already said to have decided to hold a panchayat on June 5 to renew their agitation for a quota in government jobs and educational institutions.

In Delhi, a highly-placed source said that the AAP government was all set to hold review meetings with its officials responsible for supply of water, milk, vegetables, fruit and fuel in the city.

The government is also going to see that adequate measures are in place so that commuters travelling to the neighbouring states do not face any hardships. There are fears that the agitation might affect vehicular movement in bordering areas connecting Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh, Alipur, Sonepat, Ghaziabad and Noida.

An AAP functionary said that the party’s legislators are likely to hold interactions with Jat leaders so that the agitation in the neighbouring state does not spread to the pockets dominated by the community members in 15 Assembly segments in the city.

Among the Jat-dominated Assembly segments are Najafgarh, Bijwasan, Vikaspuri, Matiala, Mehrauli, Mundka, Nangloi, Bawana, Narela, Burari, Gokalpuri, Rohtas Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Greater Kailash and R.K. Puram.

Jats figure in the state list of OBCs in Uttar Pradesh, while in Rajasthan, they are included both in the state and Central list of OBCs. The Central list, however, excludes the community members hailing from the districts of Bharatpur and Dholpur. In Haryana, Jats are excluded from both the state and Central lists.