Jat stir for quota in education, jobs caused over Rs 250 crore damage to Northern Railways: Official

Gurgaon: The Jat community’s recent violent agitation for reservation in education and jobs caused a loss amounting to over Rs.250 crore to the Railways, a senior Northern Railway official said on Friday. The amount of loss was revealed as Senior Divisional Manager Deepankar Jha along with other departmental officers arrived here to review development works. The team visited Farukhnagar Railway station to review beautification work being done there. [caption id=“attachment_2636102” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of members of the Jat community during a protest. PTI[/caption] The team also enquired about the progress of the work being done by Reliance company. Replying to a query by media persons, Senior Divisional Manager Deepankar Jha said that Railways had to bear over Rs.250 crore as violent protestors torched several rail coaches and other properties belonging to the Northern Railway. He said the losses included income through passenger fares and cancellation of reserved tickets. The official said that services of over three dozen local trains have been suspended in Haryana. He was handed over a memorandum, demanding restarting of the routes of local trains. He assured the people to forward the daily passengers’ grievances to senior officials and said the railway understands the trouble caused to daily passengers due to stoppage of trains. He hoped the trains would restart plying on their dedicated routes after complete checking of tracks, coaches and input from intelligence agencies. IANS