The Haryana Cabinet on Monday approved the Jat Reservation Bill, which is expected to be tabled in the Assembly soon. This comes a day after protesters from the Jat community threatened to resume their agitation if their demand for reservations is not met by March 31, the last day of the Budget Session of Haryana's Vidhan Sabha.

Panchayats held in the districts of Jind, Jhajjar and Rohtak on Sunday decided to launch agitations again if their demands were not met. “If Jats are not accorded reservation, the next agitation will be bigger than the previous one. The Jat community is not in the mood to wait more,” said Yashpal Malik, President of the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, The Indian Express reported. Among the demands of the community were 10% quota in government jobs and educational institutions, all cases registered against Jats withdrawn and those arrested released.

Moreover, the Haryana government said on Sunday that it has paid as much as Rs 25 crore to 2,035 claimants who suffered damage to property and material in the protests last month, IANS reported. “Of these, 1,768 claimants have been paid in full,” an official spokesman said, adding that special district-level teams had been set up to assess and settle claim cases of Rs 1 crore and above.

According to the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India, the state had incurred an estimated Rs 20,000 crore in losses during the nine-day agitation by Jats in February, which killed at least 30 people. The districts of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Kaithal, Jind, Sonepat and Bhiwani witnessed violence, and Delhi, too, had felt the effects of the reservation stir, after Jat members brought their protest to Munak Canal, the national capital's main source of water.