By IANS,
Lucknow : In her third letter in as many days to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Monday has demanded reservation for the Jat community.
Seeking inclusion of Jat community in the central government’s list of other backward classes (OBC), Mayawati contended that the bulk of the Jat population in the state earned their living mainly from agriculture and allied activities.
“Owing to decline in the agricultural land holdings, the financial condition of the families had weakened. Moreover, they were educationally backward as well. Their children also lagged behind in the field of school education, as a consequence of which they did not have proper representation in the central services either,” she stated in her letter.
“It was keeping that in view, the UP government had included Jat community in the list of OBC way back in March 2000,” she wrote.
To further emphasise her demand, she has cited the example of the Rajasthan government which granted to the Jat community reservation under the OBC list way back in 1999.