Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar offers to form panel to resolve Jats' quota issue

Chandigarh: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday offered to set up either a legislators' panel or a government one under himself to resolve the agitating Jats' demand for quota in state jobs and educational institutions.

"A committee of Vidhan Sabha could be constituted with the consent of the Speaker or a panel of ministers, including me, could be formed by the government to hold talks with the agitators so that the issue could be resolved at the earliest," Khattar told the State assembly while responding to an adjournment motion on indefinite sit-ins by the Jats at various places in the state.

The adjournment motion had been moved by Congress MLA Raghuvir Singh Kadian and nine others including Abhay Singh Chautala of INLD and independent legislator Jai Parkash in the ongoing assembly session here today.

In his adjournment motion, Kadian had said the government should set up a panel either of ministers or of the House members to hold talks with the agitating Jat community members for peaceful and expeditious resolution of the matter.

Speaking during the debate on the motion, Chautala said the CM should come forward and hold direct talks with the agitators and discounted the need to set up any panel.

The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti (AIJASS), spearheading the stir afresh for over a month now, has decided against participating in formation of the proposed four-member panel comprising two members each from the government and the community, saying the panel is to have no powers to redress their grievances.
During the February last year's stir, 30 people had been killed and properties worth crores of rupees were damaged.

During his address to the assembly today, Khattar was frequently interrupted by the opposition members including Chautala, Kadian amid verbal duel between members of treasury benches and the opposition on the issue with the debate on it stretching to three hours despite the Speaker having alloted only two hours for it.

Khattar sought cooperation of the opposition to resolve the ongoing Jat reservation agitation for quota and denied allegations that the Government was neither willing to talk to the agitators nor accept their demands.

He also termed as "baseless, false and incorrect" the allegations that some ministers and the ruling party leaders are trying to divide the community and playing a diabolical game by not holding talks with the agitators.

Khattar on the other hand reiterated the government's commitment to resolve the issue through talks and said the government is always willing to talk to any group or leader who can help in resolving the tangle.

Maintaining that the government is leaving no stone unturned for peaceful resolution of the matter, Khattar said the Jat agitators earlier had only seven demands, which have now multiplied to 28 and they were now insisting that they would not talk on the earlier demands.

He said that they were "changing goal posts," complicating the situation. 

While expressing the government's willingness to accede to the Jats demands, Khattar pointed out that the state had even enacted a law for teh purpose.

The government had enacted The Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation In Services And Admission in Educational Institutions) Act, 2016 to provide reservations to the members of Jat, Ror, Bishnoi, Jatsikh, MuIla Jat/ Muslim Jat and Tyagi communities,as per May 12, 2016 notification, said the CM.

Dwelling upon the legal hurdles in the path, Khattar pointed out that the provisions of the Act were challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which has stayed it and adjudicating the same with the next hearing fixed for March 2.

He said he has already announced during a recent programme in Kurukshetra that as soon as the court vacates its stay on the law, the state government would write to the Centre for the inclusion of the law in the 9th Schedule of the Constitution to insulate from the court's scrutiny.

Referring to various penal offences committed during the agitation last year, Khattar said "Investigation of all the cases registered on account of violence and other different types of crime during the Jat Reservation agitation in February 2016 is under scrutiny of the High Court."

"Regular reports are being submitted by the police to the court stating therein the status of investigation in all those cases," he said.

Khattar sought to assure the House that no innocent person was arrested by the police in last year's violence during the stir for Jat reservation adding that the violators were arrested only on the basis of evidence.

He said that the state government has also provided financial aid to the innocent persons who sustained injuries during the 2016 Jat reservation agitation.
Apart from this, the government has also decided to provide job to one family member of those who lost their life during the agitation.

He said the Centre too is looking into the demand for the reservation to Jat communities in the state jobs and educational institutions and a panel the chairmanship of Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has been set up for the purpose.