The Haryana Cabinet on Monday cleared the Bill that proposes to provide reservation to five communities, including the politically-dominant Jat community. Aiming to meet the April 3 deadline set by Jats, the Cabinet passed the Bill to provide reservation to Jats in Government jobs and education, thus paving the way for tabling of the proposed legislation in the ongoing Budget Session of the State Assembly, which is scheduled to end on March 31.
The draft Bill on reservation to Jats and four other castes — Sikhs, Rors, Bishnois and Tyagis — was cleared at the Cabinet meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar.
The Bill proposes 10 per cent reservation in educational institutions and Class-III and IV Government jobs and 6 per cent reservation in Class-I and Class-II jobs for the five communities by creating a new classification in the Backward Classes category, sources said.
Apart from giving reservation to Jats, the Haryana Government has also proposed to bring a separate Bill for the setting up of a permanent Haryana Backward Classes Commission, they said.
This was the first step in meeting the demands of Jats who carried out violent protests in Haryana last month that claimed 30 lives, left 320 people injured and damaged properties worth crores. Jat leaders have threatened to resume the stir if the quota law was not made by April 3. They had earlier threatened to relaunch their agitation on March 18 but put it off till April 3 after the BJP Government assured them that it would bring the Bill in the ongoing Budget Session.
Jat leaders have been demanding reservation in the existing Backward Classes (BC) category. The BC quota is bifurcated into two,- BC-A and BC-B, having 16 and 11 per cent reservation, respectively.
Jat leaders have told the Government that in case the reservation breaches the overall 50 per cent ceiling, then the Government should include the proposed legislation in the ninth Schedule of the Constitution to save it from judicial review.
“We want that whatever Bill is tabled should be legally tenable,” All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti president Yashpal Malik had said.
The decision that no protest would be held till April 3 if the reservation Bill is passed in the ongoing session was announced by Malik here after talks with Haryana Chief Secretary DS Dhesi and DGP Yashpal Singhal on March 18.