#Haryana #Jat #Protests: Fresh #Violence In #Rohtak; #National #Highways Blocked Again

#Rohtak:  #Haryana  Curfew in four districts – Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Sonipat – will be reviewed today.

A meeting of Jat leaders in underway in Bahadurgarh to decide whether the protests will continue or be called off. Yesterday, the ruling BJP had promised to bring a bill in the Haryana assembly to include the Jats as a special category within Other Backward Classes or OBCs in the state.

Violence continued in Rohtak, the epicenter of the nine-day protests, today. A car of a judge was set on fire despite curfew.

Blockades were lifted in many parts of the state yesterday. But traffic on National Highway 1 has been suspended due to violence in Sonepat. National Highway 10 to Hisar and Jind is also completely blocked.

Jat leaders say they want to read the fine-print on what “special category” means. They have also demanded compensation for the families of those killed during the agitation, in which protesters set up road blocks very 500 metres or so in major Haryana towns and on highways.

Curfew is still on in four districts – Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and Sonipat. Schools and colleges remained closed on Monday for the second day.

The protests hit water supply in adjacent Delhi. “We’ve completely run out of water. I appeal to the centre with folded hands to immediately intervene and get munak canal started in Haryana,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted this morning.

Some time later, he tweeted, “Gud news. Army takes control of munak canal gates.” The chief minister said he was trying to assess in how much time water would reach Delhi, where schools are closed in Monday in anticipation of an acute water shortage.

Jats in Haryana have been demanding the benefits of affirmative action for years. The previous Congress had announced “Special Backward Caste” for the community in 2013, but the Punjab and Haryana High Court stalled the move last year.

The Supreme Court has rejected the inclusion of Jats in the Centre’s OBC list on the ground that the National Commission of Backward Castes does not consider them socially and economically backward in Haryana.
This round of protests began on February 14 and turned violent on Friday last, with protesters setting fire to buses, cars, a mall, a petrol pump and the house of the state finance minister Captain Abhimanyu in Rohtak.