After the National Green Tribunal (NGT)issued notices to the Haryana government over a petition seeking areduction in the number of motorbikes at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah’s rally in Jind to be held on February 15 onpollution grounds, the Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) on Mondayissued notice of motion to the Union of India, Haryana government andthe BJP on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed seeking protectionto the life, liberty and property of the public in Haryana in view ofShah’s rally involving one lakh motorcycles.

A Division Bench of the HC headed by Justice AK Mittal issued notice to motion to the Centre, Haryana government and the BJP through its Haryana president Subhash Barala for 14 February on the PIL filed by a Chandigarh based NGO Arrive Safe Society through its president Harman Singh Sidhu.

Through his petition Sidhu has submitted that BJP chief is supposed to kick off party’s 2019 LokSabha campaign through this rally, which itself is in violation of guidelines issued by Election Commission of India, which are appended as. It is a trite fact that the supporters of political parties violate traffic rules (ride two-wheelers without helmet, drive in wrong directions, jump red lights, triple riding etc)block traffic and indulge in hooliganism. This sets a bad example tothe youngsters, encouraging them to violate rules of the road. The chaos and traffic jam adversely affects the travel time of ambulances and other emergency vehicles.

Though, the petitioner has made the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) as respondent as its National President Yashpal Malik had threatened to deploy 50,000 tractor trolleys for fulfillment of their alleged demands on the same day, however the AIJASS was deleted from the array of respondents after the request of the petitioner as Maliki has announced withdrawal of his agitation after reaching a consensus with Haryana government on Sunday night. Over the issue of pollution due to One Lakh motorbikes at Jind rally, the NGT has already sought replies from the Centre and the state government by February 13.