Ministerial panel to hold talks with protesting Gujjars

The Rajasthan government has constituted a three-member ministerial committee to hold talks later Saturday with Gujjars, protesting in Bharatapur district for last three days for reservation in government jobs and educational institutes.

Gujjars want reservation under SBC (special backward class) category.

"We want five percent reservation under the SBC category and that should be within the upper limit of 50 percent reservation," Himmat Singh, spokesperson of Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti told IANS.

The Samiti, led by Colonel Kirori Singh Bainsla (retd), is spearheading the agitation.

The ministerial team that would hold talks in the evening with a delegation of Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti, consists of Rajasthan's medical & health minister Rajendra Rathore, social welfare minister Arun Chaturvedi and food and civil supplies minister Hem Singh Bhadana.

The talks are likely to be held in government college in Bayana town, few kilometers from the place where Gujjars are squatting on a railway track.

As the days are passing by, number of people staging the sit-in is on the rise.

Meanwhile, the sit-in by the Gujjars at Pilu Ka Pura area in Bharatpur district has affected the movement of at least 60 trains so far, including those on the Delhi-Mumbai section.

The state roadways also cancelled some buses on the route where the Gujjars were holding their protest.

Gujjars, demanding reservation for better educational and job prospects, had staged violent protests between 2006-2008, in which at least 67 people lost their lives.