Khaps plan series of meetings; first today

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 6

After a lull of a few months, khaps have restarted their effort to mobilise support across Haryana for Jat reservation.

From Sunday, khaps will start a series of meetings in several districts. They plan to organise a state-level mahapanchayat on September 13 to launch an agitation against the Haryana Government.

“To date, the government has not been serious in releasing innocent youths arrested during the Jat agitation in February. Besides, it is not pursuing the Jat reservation case in the High Court properly,” alleged Sube Singh Sumain, spokesperson for the Sarv Khap Panchayat (SKP).

As per the programme, khaps will organise a meeting in Kurukshetra tomorrow. On August 14, another meeting will be convened in Sonepat’s Kohla village, while Palwal will be the venue for the August 21 meeting.

The dates of more meetings will be finalised later.

On the venue for the mahapanchayat, some khap leaders said the venue had not been finalised as leaders from Rohtak, Kalayat, Narnaud, Jind and Kurukshetra wanted to organise the mahapanchayat in their districts.

After a long tussle among BJP leaders, the government had on March 29 passed the Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Service and Admission in Educational Institution) Act, 2016.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, however, had stayed the reservation in jobs and educational institutes on May 26. The next hearing of case has fixed for August 10.

“Khap leaders have met senior state and central leaders of the BJP. With no hope for justice from them, khaps will take a final decision regarding the launch of an agitation after the mahapanchayat,” said Tek Ram Kandela, convener of the SKP.