Jats, five other castes granted reservation in Haryana

Haryana Assembly on Tuesday unanimously passed a Bill to provide reservation to Jats and five other communities in government jobs and educational institutions, ahead of the April 3 deadline set by the community which had launched a violent agitation last month.

Congress members did not attend the session on Tuesday as they were demanding revoking the suspension of their three MLAs.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday introduced two Bills – Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admission in Educational Institutions) Bill, 2016, and Haryana Backward Classes Commission Bill, 2016 – in the ongoing Budget Session, which were passed unanimously by the House.

Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admission in Educational Institutions) Bill, 2016, proposed to give statutory status to backward classes block 'A', backward classes block 'B' and backward classes block 'C' by enacting the Haryana Backward Classes (Reservation in Services and Admission in Educational Institutions) Act, 2016.

The state government will request the central government to include this Act in the 9th Schedule read with Article 31B of the Constitution.

The Bill proposed to give reservation to Jats and five other castes – Jat Sikhs, Rors, Bishnois, Tyagis and Mulla Jat/Muslim Jat – by constituting a new classification block 'C' in the backward classes category.

The Bill proposed to give 10% reservation to Jats and five other castes in government and government-aided educational institutions, and class-III and IV government jobs.

The Bill also proposed to give 6% reservation to Jats and five other castes in backward classes 'C' category in class-I and II jobs.

In case of backward classes 'A' and 'B' category, the Bill provides for raising the reservation from 10 to 11% and 5 to 6%, respectively, for class-I and II jobs.

For Economically Backward Persons (EBP), the reservation percentage was proposed to be hiked from 5 to 7% for class-I and II jobs.

The Bill states that notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the state government may provide horizontal reservation for such category or categories of persons within backward classes as it may deem necessary from time to time.

Jat leaders have been demanding reservation in the existing backward classes category. The backward classes quota is bifurcated into two — BC 'A' and BC 'B' having 16 and 11 per cent, respectively.

Under backward classes 'A' and 'B' categories, 71 and six castes are currently availing reservation benefits, respectively.

Opposition Congress had favoured the quota for Jats. The party which has 15 MLAs, boycotted the Assembly session on Tuesday as it was demanding revocation of its suspension of its three legislators who were suspended for six months after they tore the copies of governor's Address.