Come to Bayana with concrete proposal: Gujjars to government

Membedrs of the Gujjar community, staging a protest to seek five percent reservation in government jobs under OBC category in Rajasthan, on Monday said if the state government wanted to hold talks it should come to Bayana town with concrete proposals.

The protestors, meanwhile, continued to sit on railway tracks in Bharatpur district affecting movement of trains for the fifth day on the important Delhi-Mumbai sector.

Gujjar leaders refused to meet the state government delegation in Jaipur, as was requested by the three-member ministerial committee that met them (the Gujjar leaders) in Bayana on Saturday.

"We are not going to meet the government in Jaipur. If they want they will have to come to Bayana to meet us and that too with a concrete proposal," Himmat Singh, spokesperson of the Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti told IANS.

"We are going to jam the state if our demand for providing five percent reservation under SBC (special backward class) category is not met. Though the police with the help of local BJP workers have opened the Jaipur-Agra national highway, but we will block it once again," Singh said.

Kirori Singh Bainsla, convener of the Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti, said: "Treason charges and negotiations cannot go together, so the government should decide what it wants."

On Sunday, cases were registered against Bainsla and 12 others for treason, blocking rail and road traffic, and damaging public property and railway tracks.

On Saturday, talks were held between a three-member ministerial committee and a six-member delegation of the Gujjars in the premises of a college in Bayana town, a few kilometers from the place where the protestors are squatting on railway tracks.

However, the talks failed to make any headway.

The ministerial team that held talks on Saturday comprised Medical and Health Minister Rajendra Rathore, Social Welfare Minister Arun Chaturvedi and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Hem Singh Bhadana.

The Gujjars have been protesting in Bharatpur for reservation in government jobs and educational institutes.

The sit-in by Gujjars in Pilu Ka Pura area of the district has affected the movement of at least 100 trains so far, including those on the Delhi-Mumbai section, officials said.

Gujjars had staged violent protests earlier in 2006-2008, in which 67 people had lost their lives.