3 weeks later,Jats suspend stir

Earlier in the day,Uttar Pradesh Principal Secretary (Home) Kunwar Fateh Bahadur and DGP Karamvir Singh attended a meeting with the Union Home Secretary in Delhi to discuss the plan to deal with the Jat agitation.

ABJASS president Yashpal Mallik told The Sunday Express,“We have decided today to suspend the agitation and wait for the promises made by the central government to us to meet our demands. A mahapanchayat has been called at Kafurpur tomorrow in which the members of the Jat community and the leaders from the states including Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan,Jammu & Kashmir,Punjab,Haryana,Delhi and Uttarakhand would take part.”

He said,“The details of the meetings with the central government and the Haryana government held during last 20 days would be shared in the mahapanchayat. They would discuss the strategy.”

After holding the mahapanchayat tomorrow,the Jat leaders would decide if the gathering of the community members at a college in Kafurpur area would be dispersed till the next call.

The Jat agitation started with blocking of the railway tracks on the Delhi route at Kafurpur on March 5. The tracks were cleared after the Allahabad HC took cognisance of the paralysed railway traffic. The HC had ordered the Jat agitators to clear the tracks and the state government and the central government officials were asked to ensure the movement of the trains on the route.

Earlier in the day,Jat leaders in Haryana too announced that they were suspending the agitation after a meeting with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Jind on Friday night. The protesters cleared the blockades from rail tracks this afternoon. Representatives of the Jat community,who had a six-hour meeting with the CM decided to call off their protest after Hooda assured them their grievances and demands would be considered.

“We had a meeting with Bhupinder Singh Hooda,which carried on till late night yesterday. The government has assured us that our demands will be met in the coming days. We are very happy with the positive response of the Centre and state governments. The Chief Minister has assured us and we believe him,” said Hawa Singh Sangwan,president of the Haryana Jat Arakshan Samiti.

“We have suspended our protest till September 13. The government is given six months to formulate and work out all the modalities to consider and meet our demands. If the government fails to meet the deadline of September 13,we shall again resume our protest,” Sangwan added.