Fresh stir may reopen old wounds in Rohtak

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, March 4

Barring families who lost their sons and others who suffered irreparable losses, residents of Rohtak were beginning to forget as a bad dream last year’s arson witnessed during the February 2016 Jat quota agitation.

A majority of businessmen and institution owners whose property was vandalised, looted and burnt by agitationists were compensated by the government and insurance companies. A near-normalcy prevailed in the town and the wounds had begun to heal, but for the renewed agitation.

Many traders and entrepreneurs whose establishments were damaged in the February 2016 stir had constructed new buildings, thanks to the compensation provided for their losses. Even the damaged social fabric had begun to be reconstructed.

Nonetheless, the fresh demonstrations by members of the Jat community to get their demands met is being taken as a threat perception by residents of the other communities, especially victims of last year’s arson and violence.

“Neither have CCTV cameras been installed nor has adequate security been provided in our area, which suffered massive losses during last year’s agitation,” laments Jai Singh Saini, president of the Sukhpura Chowk Market Welfare Society.

Ravi, another shopkeeper of the area, points out that many traders had applied for arms licences, but those have not been granted so far. The businessmen maintain that they have conveyed their concerns to the authorities concerned several times, but to no avail.

VK Juneja, the owner of a school which was burnt during last year’s agitation, had requested the local authorities for adequate security in view of the ‘Jat Nyay Dharna’ at Jassia village in the district.

Jagmohan Mittal, president of the Haryana Automobile Dealers Association, whose Nexa showroom and cars parked at the stockyard were gutted during the arson and violence, asserted that the government should try to resolve the issue at the earliest in the larger interest of the state and society.

“A lasting and all-inclusive solution to the matter of reservation should be found and implemented within the constitutional framework so that such issues do not crop up time and again,” he maintains.

Rohtak Divisional Commissioner Chander Prakash observes that the situation has been peaceful and under control so far.

“Administrative officials are in constant touch with organisers of the demonstration and they have assured us that the agitation will remain peaceful. However, we are fully prepared for any eventuality and nobody will be allowed to take the law into their own hands,” the Commissioner asserts.