OBC quota: Pro-reservation Jat leaders to campaign against SAD (Sarvomani Akali Dal)

JALANDHAR: As Jats of Punjab, especially Sikhs, have been left high and dry after being excluded from the other backward classes (OBC) list even as the community members in nine states, including Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, their organizations have decided to campaign against SAD in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. Jat outfits of Punjab blame SAD-BJP government in the state for their being left out of OBC quota that provides for reservation in central government jobs and state-run educational institutes.

Jat Sikhs of Punjab are considered to be politically most influential and the community dominates the political scene and is backbone of SAD base, especially in rural areas. While the Jats of Punjab will not get benefits of OBC quota, those from the community, who moved out to settle in other states included in the list, will be considered for reservation in jobs and education.

"As campaigning for elections is picking up, we will canvass against SAD, especially against the Badal family, its patriarch and chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is to be mainly blamed for leaving Jats of Punjab in the lurch," alleged Kulwant Singh Bhawra, state unit chief of Sarb Hind Jat Rakhwankaran Sangharsh Committee.

"Farming community - mainly Jats - constitute the main electoral base of SAD and the party has stabbed its supporters," Bahwara said, adding that from Tuesday, they would start protests against Punjab government and the primary protest would be held in Ferozepur. He maintained that factions of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU -- Indian Farmers Union), owing allegiance to ruling SAD, were also to be blamed.

Meanwhile, committee's national president Yashpal Pamil said that Jat Sikhs, who had migrated from Punjab and were permanent residents of other states covered under the reservation for OBC, were eligible for benefits. A considerable population of Punjab-origin Jat Sikhs live in parts of Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar, which are among the nine states covered under the reservation.

Yashpal said they would campaign against BJP in the neighbouring states also as the alliance was to be blamed for ignoring poor members of the community as only they should have been covered under it. "Benefit of reservation under the OBC quota should have been extended to jats of Punjab having an annual income of less than Rs 4.5 lakh," he said.

The chief of Punjab unit of the All India Jat Maha Sabha, Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon, said ambivalent attitude of the state government to pursue the matter with the Centre deprived poor Jats of Punjab with marginal or no landholdings a chance to seek admission in central universities and institutes and then getting employment in central government departments. "That too when Punjab CM projects himself to be guardian of THE farming community," said Kushaldeep, a former MLA.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/OBC-quota-Pro-reservation-Jat-leaders-to-campaign-against-SAD/articleshow/31371954.cms