Haryana Chief Minister cancels ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ over Jat agitation

Haryana: Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday announced that the 'Pravasi Bharatiya Divas' which is scheduled to be held on March 9 has been cancelled following the Jat protests for job quotas that led to widespread violence in the state.

Hundreds of Non-Resident Indians (NRI), especially belonging to Haryana, had registered themselves for the event.

Khattar said the state had observed "unhappy stories and we cannot go forward comfortably with events like an NRI summit though it was a dream event. We will plan it for some other time".

Manohar Lal Khattar (born 5 May 1954) is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and current Chief Minister of Haryana state in India. He is a former RSS pracharak and was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Haryana in 2014.

Also, the traditional programmes scheduled to be presented during the 'Happening Haryana' Global Investors Summit on March 7-8 had also been cancelled, he said.

Khattar, however, said the two-day business meet, focused on attracting investment, will be held as per scheduled on March 7 and 8.

Properties, business establishments, factories and vehicles belonging to non-Jats were looted and torched at several places in the state. The nine days of violence left 30 people dead and over 200 injured. (IANS)