Ten people were killed and 150 injured in violence during the Jat agitation in Haryana so far, Haryana Director-General of Police Yash Pal Singal said on Sunday.
Mr. Singal said that a district-wise action plan was prepared on Saturday evening for the entire State and its implementation had led to positive results with no reports of deaths and fresh violence over the past 12 hours. He also said that 191 cases had been registered in connection with the incidents of rioting and arson in the State and 45 people were rounded-up.
With the Jat agitators blocking the water supply to Delhi at Munak Canal, Mr. Singal said that restoring the supply was his top priority. “Teams of paramilitary forces and technical teams of Irrigation Department have been sent to restore the supply,” said Mr. Singal.
Replying to a question on Army and paramilitary forces deployment, Mr. Singal said 69 Army columns had been deployed in the State with the densest deployment in Jhajjar and Rohtak. Besides, the Army has also been deployed in Jind, Sonipat and Hisar districts. He further added that 10 more columns of Army had reached Delhi and will soon be airlifted to different parts of the State. “Of the 49 companies of the paramilitary forces sought from the Centre, 39 had already reached Haryana. Of these, 24 have been deployed. The personnel are being air dropped with the road and rail traffic hit” said Mr. Singal.
He said that a video conference was held with the Cabinet Secretary and Chief of the Army Staff and Air Chief on Sunday morning and they were apprised of the present situation in the State. He denied reports of lack of co-ordination between the police and the Army and said that action would be taken against police officers for dereliction of duty, if any. “We have a few reports of lower rank policemen not taking action against the agitators at a few places. But the police have been told in no uncertain terms that action would be taken against any dereliction of duty,” said Haryana Additional Chief Secretary P.K. Das.
Mr. Das also conceded that there were reports of caste-related violence as well.
The road and rail traffic remained badly hit across the State. The situation, however, remains peaceful by and large with no major incident of violence being reported during the past 24 hours.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda sat on an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi making an appeal to the agitators to not resort to violence. He was accompanied by several senior Congress leaders from Haryana.
