Bharat Bandh fails to evoke much response in Punjab, Haryana

Phagwara, Aug 21 (PTI) The day-long Bharat Bandh called by some Dalit and Adivasi groups against the Supreme Court’s verdict on sub-classification of Scheduled Castes failed to evoke much response in Punjab and Haryana on Wednesday, even though protests were held at some places.

While essential services had been kept out of the bandh’s ambit, public transport as well as shops and other commercial establishments functioned normally.

Elaborate security arrangements have been put in place in the two states to maintain law and order, police said.

Markets and business establishments were open as usual in Punjab’s Phagwara. However, some educational institutions were closed by their management as a precautionary measure.

Activists of some organisations working for the welfare of Schedule caste communities took out a protest march from Ambedkar Park in Guru Hargobind Nagar to the underpass of an over-bridge of national highway 44 in Phagwara and staged a dharna there.

A protest march was taken out in Jalandhar too. Shops and other commercial establishments as well as schools functioned normally in Ludhiana too.

The situation remained largely normal in Hoshiarpur district with all educational institutions and business establishments functioning as usual. Workers from the Bahujan Samaj Party and some Dalit outfits staged a protest near the local bus stand.

In Haryana’s Hisar, some members of Dalit communities participated in a protest march from Krantiman Park to the Mini Secretariat. The bandh failed to evoke any response in Ambala.

Twenty-one organisations across the country had called for the Bharat Bandh against the Supreme Court order, which they have said will harm the basic principles of reservation.

The August 1 Supreme Court order held that states are constitutionally empowered to make sub-classifications within SCs, which form a socially heterogeneous class, for granting reservation for the uplift of castes that are socially and educationally more backward among them.