No end to Jat stir, rail services remain disrupted

Chandigarh: Jat agitators continue to wreak havoc on the rail traffic in northern India where a number of trains have been cancelled and some cut short of their destination.

The Jat body spearheading the agitation said they will not relent until their demand was met.

"There is no going back on our demand. The ball is in the government's court.

Our demand is genuine and they should have no problem in accepting this," Hawa Singh Sangwan, Haryana State President of All India Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, the body spearheading the agitation, said.

If the demand is not met soon, the community members will block prime roads in the state in the days ahead to press for their demand, he said.

The Centre had held a round of talks with them recently in a bid to put an end to the agitation which has been going on for three weeks now badly affecting normal life at many places.

Train services on 14 mainlines in Haryana, including Mumbai-Delhi-Rewari, Bhiwani-Delhi-Rohtak, Delhi-Ludhiana-Jind, Narwana-Kurukshetra, Rohtak-Panipat,

Rewari-Loharu, Loharu-Jaipur, Hisar-Jaipur, Bhiwani-Hisar, Hisar-Bathinda, and Delhi-Jind-Ludhiana continued to remain disrupted for yet another day on Thursday.

With the disruption in the supply of coal, the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant, Khedar, Hisar has been closed.

At a meeting held at Kurukshetra recently, the agitating Jats had threatened to block the Delhi-Ambala rail route if their demand was not met by March 25.

They also threatened to cut off the national capital from the rest of North India in the next phase of their stir if the demand was not fulfilled by March 28.

Meanwhile, a Jat protester Vijay Singh (62), resident of village Mehuwala (Bhattu Kalan) of Fatehabad district, who was observing indefinite fast since March 14, died at the dharna site at Mehuwala Rail Track, last night, police sources said.

His condition had deteriorated yesterday, they said. Singh's body has been kept on the railway track and the agitators are waiting for Samiti's national president, Yashpal Malik and leader Hawa Singh Sangwan to reach there.