Thaindian News

Chandigarh, March 15 (IANS) Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Tuesday said that he fully supported the Jat community’s demand for job quota under the other backward classes (OBC) category but only in central government.

Interacting with media here, Hooda said the OBC quota for Jats should only be in the central government and there was no justification to give Jats reservation in the state.

The Jat community in Haryana, along with its counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, has been agitating for the last few days for the OBC job quota. The comunuity’s agitation in Haryana’s Hisar, Jind and Bhiwani districts has severely affected life and railway services.

Denying allegations of the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) that the state government was not serious about the Jats’ demand, Hooda said he last year wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for favourable action on the issue.

Reacting to the opposition claim that Haryana’s request to the prime minister had been rejected, Hooda clarified that his letter had not been rejected by the National Backward Classes Commission, which had only stated that the matter was not in its purview and that the letter had been forwarded to the union social justice and empowerment minister.

The 1,200 MW Rajiv Gandhi mega-thermal plant at Khedar in Hisar district has been shut down in the last one week following blockade of railway tracks by the Jat protesters.

Hooda said the required coal could not reach the thermal plant due to the agitation and power supply was being affected in parts of the state, especially at a time when students were taking their final examinations.