Restore services disrupted by Jats: HC to UP govt

The ten-day agitation by the Jat community in Uttar Pradesh demanding their inclusion in the list of Other Backward Castes in government job quota received a setback on Friday with the Allahabad high court asking the Maywati administration to get into action.      

Taking serious note of the on-going stir by Jats, who brought parts of the state to a standstill by blocking rail routes in western UP, the high court issued stern directives to the state government to ensure restoration of the disrupted services.

Soon after the order was issued to the UP government on a public interest litigation, Chief Justice FI Rebello took suo motto cognizance of the issue and constituted a two-judge bench in Lucknow to initiate suitable action on the matter. 

Within the next hour, a special bench comprising Justice Uma Nath Singh and Justice VK Dixit summoned top officials of the state, directing them to pull up their socks and to take prompt action to clear the rail tracks and ensure restoration of the disrupted rail traffic.

The judges rapped the state government for their utter indifference and apathy towards the inconvenience being caused to thousands of rail passengers on account of the cancellation and diversion of several important trains.

The agitation had adversely affected the traffic on the Delhi-Lucknow route where most trains were forced to take long detours, and therefore ran hours behind schedule.

Within 30 minutes of the court's intervention, the state government too got into action, only to prove that the issue was their top priority. "We have been worried about the whole issue and the chief minister too has been busy holding a series of meetings on the same," claimed state Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh.

Singh told a hurriedly convened press conference, "However, there was little that we could do to resolve the crisis as the demand raised by the agitators was not within the authority of the state government. The home minister is already holding talks with their representatives in New Delhi."

"Yet we will surely abide by the order of the high court and do whatever was within our means to carry it out," he added.

UP Chief Minister Mayawati had announced at a press conference in Lucknow last week that the government was in support of the demand raised by the Jat community. "We do not have the authority to do anything about it. Therefore, I would advise them to raise the issue before the Union government," she had said.