The Hindu : Front Page : Report on Gujjars to be sent to Centre

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Wednesday, Dec 19, 2007
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Report on Gujjars to be sent to Centre

Sunny Sebastian

Moots special package for community

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Cabinet on Tuesday decided to forward to the Centre the report of the Justice (retired) Jas Raj Chopra Committee, which looked into Gujjars’ demand for inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe category. The Cabinet also announced the setting up of a high-level committee, headed by Ramdas Agarwal, BJP national treasurer, to look into the recommendations of the panel for the uplift of the Gujjars by providing them with a special package.

The Chopra committee, which presented its report to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje here on Monday, asked for “benevolently allocating sizeable funds for a reasonable period “for the community, which inhabits the underdeveloped and inaccessible areas.” It suggested an area-specific approach to the problem which would not exclude “those families that are poor but do not belong to the Gujjar community.”

The committee, set up six months ago in the wake of a violent agitation by the Gujjars, however, felt that the community’s demand for enlistment in the ST category in Rajasthan could not be met, as such a step would require abrogation of the criteria set by the Centre for the process. Advising the State to convey to the Centre its concern at the obsolete nature of the criteria, the committee noted: “Passing judgment on the candidature of a particular group for the ST status in terms of presently used criteria is very difficult.”

The report of the committee, comprising Yogesh Atal and member-secretary T. Srinivasan, besides Justice Chopra, said: “Employment of the five criteria laid down by the Centre for such a heterogeneous group can only lead to a dead-end. Moreover, it must be said that the criteria are qualitative and their quantification is difficult. Even the logicality of these criteria seems questionable.”

The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Ms. Raje, examined the report. There will not be any recommendatory letter accompanying the 294-page text to the Centre, though the main Gujjar demand is a letter from the State recommending ST status.

“Deceit”

“It is deceit on the part of the Chief Minister. The promise made to us was sending a recommendation letter,” Kirori Singh Bainsla, senior Gujjar leader, said. “We will continue with the agitation. It will be a non-violent struggle,” he said.

The Meena groups, till now opposing ST status to the Gujjars, spoke in a conciliatory tone. “We are satisfied with the government decision,” BSP MLA Murari Meena said.

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