Badal responsible if no Jat quota: Capt

Wednesday, 05/02/2014

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=93370&boxid=58318&uid=&dat=2014-02-05

“Shiromani Akali Dal passed a unanimous resolution seeking reservation for Jats in Punjab, but it is intriguing that govt has not accepted unanimous resolution of its own party”

Chandigarh : Former chief minister and permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee Capt Amarinder Singh has said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will be responsible if the Jats living in Punjab are denied the benefit of reservation under the OBC quota in jobs and other educational institutions.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, Capt Amarinder said the high-level ministerial committee set up by the Union government to examine the issue and recommend the case for reservation was scheduled to meet on February 10. The committee will examine the recommendations of the National Backward Classes Commission for providing reservation to Jats living in nine states. All these states have made the recommendations to the commission.

However, he said,

Punjab is not included in those states since the Punjab government has not so far made any formal recommendation to the Backward Classes Commission, which is a mandatory requirement.

The former chief minister said this was despite the fact that the Shiromani Akali Dal had passed a unanimous resolution seeking reservation for Jats in Punjab. He said it was intriguing that the government in Punjab had not accepted the unanimous resolution of its own party.

“Or it appears that the state government was trying to play politics by not recommending the case to the Backward Classes Commission so that it could blame the Central government for not providing the benefit of reservation to Jats in Punjab,” Capt Amarinder observed, adding that otherwise there was no reason for the state government not to recommend the case to the Government of India.

The CWC member said several farmers’ organisations from Punjab had made a strong case for reservation as most of the Jats in Punjab were now having landholdings less than 2 acres and there was massive unemployment.

He said in case the state government recommends the case for reservation, the Jat youth will be eligible under the OBC quota for about 1.25 lakh jobs in Government of India and various educational institutions. He wondered as to why Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, otherwise proclaiming himself to be the guardian of the farmers’ interests, was sitting over the issue and not recommending the case to the Centre.