The Punjab and Haryana High Court here on Tuesday issued notice of motion to the Centre as well as the…
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The Punjab and Haryana High Court here on Tuesday issued notice of motion to the Centre as well as the Haryana government on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed seeking directions for the respondents to ensure that all national highways, state highways and railway tracks falling in the state, not to be blocked by the Jat agitators and immediate action be taken against the protestors as per the provisions of National Highway Act 1956.
The Division Bench headed by Justice SS Saron issued notice to the respondents, inlcuding Union Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Railway, National Highway Authority of India, Chief Secretary, Haryana, Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Haryana and the Director General of Police, Haryana for March 15 on the PIL filed by Chandigarh based advocate Arvind Seth.
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The petitioner has prayed that the respondents, especially the state Chief Secretary and the DGP be directed to take all necessary steps to ensure that smooth running of all the traffic as there is an apprehension that the Jats protesting in various parts of Haryana are likely to block the national highways and state highways for pressing their demands.
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He further stated in the PIL that in 2016, there was rampant blockage on the highways in various parts of Haryana by the agitators for their demands, due to which public at large suffered untold hardship.
The petitioner also alleged that the official respondents previously had failed to evoke the effectively provisions of Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code so as to avoid un-towards incidents as happened in February, 2016 in Haryana and during that agitation shops, houses, vehicles and the stocks of the persons were set on fire by the miscreants.
For the past 24 days, Jats in Haryana have been protesting seeking OBC quota and other demands, including government jobs for the kin of those killed during previous agitation and withdrawal of cases registered against the community members in 2016.
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