Jats call off protests

Jaipur India, June 24: The Jat community in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, on Saturday called off their stir demanding reservation on the second day after holding talks with a government delegation, police said.

"The Jat agitation has been called off after talks with a high-level state government delegation," Superintendent of Police, Bharatpur, Anil Kumar Tank, told media.

On Friday, the protest had badly affected road and railway traffic in Bharatpur district, over 170 km from state capital Jaipur.

Vishvendra Singh, a prominent Jat leader and former ruler of Bharatpur, told IANS: "We have got a written statement from the state government that they will discuss the report of the Commission that was set up by the state government to survey the socio-economic status of the Jat community in Bharatpur and Dholpur districts in the first of the Cabinet meetings."

Jats in Rajasthan are classified as Other Backward Classes (OBC), except for the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur districts, who now are demanding similar status.

The Commission set up in 2016 submitted its report on Thursday.

The Congress legislator said the state government has assured them that they would sympathetically look into their demands.

"I request my community members to lift road and rail blockades," Singh said.

On Friday, the protesters had resorted to road and train blockades in some places, mainly between Bharatpur to Mathura, Jaipur, and Agra and roads connecting various towns in the district.

Many trains in Jaipur, Agra, and Mathura sectors were canceled while train traffic between the important Delhi-Mumbai sector was affected.

Roads from Bharatpur to Delhi, Deeg, Alwar, Agra, and Mathura were also blocked.