Sonia Gandhi meets Jat leaders at her residence in New Delhi. (PTI)
A delegation of Jat leaders today met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and thanked her for UPA government's decision of recommending reservation for the community in central government jobs and educational institutions.
The Union Cabinet had on Thursday asked the National Commission of Backward Classes to take a final call on granting them with Other Backward Class (OBC) status at the central level.
The Cabinet decided that the NCBC should reconsider its earlier decision of 2011 in which it had rejected demands for reservation to the community at the central level.
The demand for reservation for Jats has come from nine states - Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Bihar.
But Punjab Congress leader Amarinder Singh has described the Centre's move to provide reservation to jats in central government jobs "only" in nine states as "unfair and discriminatory". He has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to extend it to Punjab and three other states.
Mr Singh, a former Punjab chief minister and president of the All India Jat Maha Sabha, has also said the reservation should be based on the caste and not on religious basis, as Sikh and Muslim Jats have been excluded from the benefit at several places.