Gujjars intensify agitation by refusing to meet Rajasthan Govt’s team
By ANISunday, December 26, 2010
JAIPUR - Gujjars have intensified their agitation by refusing to meet a three-member team of IAS officers sent by the Rajasthan government to end the stalemate over the reservation row.
Soon after the arrivals of the Rajathan government’s three member team in Bayana, some 12-km from Pilukarpura in Bharatpur district, the team appealed to Gujjars to hold talks but their leaders firmly refused to meet the officers.
“We are demanding five per cent reservation and we will hold talks only after the agenda of any meeting is five per cent reservation only,” Gujjar leader Roop Singh said.
According to officials, the three-member team comprising of Principal Secretary (Home) G S Sandhu, Principal Secretary (Education) Ashok Sampatram and Commercial Tax Commissioner Niranjan Arya, who arrived by a helicopter, are camping in a government school.
On the sixth day of their agitation, Gujjars occupied Ajmer-Indore and Jaipur-Kota rail tracks in Bhilwara and Tonk districts, disruptig movement of trains.
At least 50 trains have been hit by the ongoing Gujjar stir, officials added.
The protesters, demanding five per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions, had already occupied rail tracks on Jaipur-Delhi and Delhi-Mumbai routes in Dausa and Bharatpur districts respectively. Road traffic on the Jaipur-Agra national highway was reportedly affected as thousands of Gujjars held a meeting in Dausa.
Meanwhile, refusing to meet the government team, Roop Singh, a close aide of Kirori Singh Bainsla, who is spearheading the stir, said: “This is a political issue. Politicians should come here for talks.”
Earlier, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for fuelling the simmering unrest in the region over providing reservation to Gujjars in the state.
“The chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nitin Gadkari, and Vasundhara Raje Scindia (former Chief Minister of Rajasthan) want the state to burn in the fire of protests. They want roads jammed and people protesting and going astray, and I condemn them for doing this,” he added. (ANI)
