Gujjars intensify stir, threaten to expand it

Block NH 11 at Dausa and a State highway in Sawaimadhopur district

May 25, 2015 12:00 am | Updated April 03, 2016 12:55 am IST - Bharatpur/Jaipur:

Gujjars block NH11 in Dausa district of Rajasthan on Sunday to press their demand for reservation in government jobs.– Photo: PTI

Gujjars block NH11 in Dausa district of Rajasthan on Sunday to press their demand for reservation in government jobs.– Photo: PTI

A day after their failed talks with the government, Gujjars intensified their agitation on Sunday for five per cent quota by blocking highways in parts of Rajasthan and threatened to expand it across the State even as their leaders were booked for rioting and endangering lives.

The community members, who started the renewed agitation on Thursday last by disrupting rail traffic on Delhi-Mumbai tracks in Bharatpur, on Sunday blocked National Highway 11 at Dausa and a State highway in Sawaimadhopur district to build pressure on the State government.

The Gujjars, who held talks with the government in Bayan town in Bharatpur on Saturday, said they were intensifying their agitation as they had been offered no concrete proposal to meet their demand.

Led by Kirori Singh Bainsla, who had spearheaded a similar agitation in 2008, Gujjars assembled at Sikandara in Dausa early this morning to pay homage to 21 people who were killed on the same day in 2008 during the violent agitation.

After that, the Gujjar members blocked the highway at Sikandara. The Sawaimadhopur-Sheopur State highway in Khandar area of Sawaimadhopur district was also blocked late on Saturday night where the Gujjars are squatting, the police said.

Traffic on both the highways has been diverted to other roads and police has been deployed around the area to maintain law and order, the police added.

“Several hundred people blocked the highway at Sikandara on Sunday morning while the Sawaimadhopur-Sheopur State highway is also blocked since Saturday night,” the police said.

Himmat Singh, spokesperson of Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said the agitation would be expanded in the State if there is no fresh and concrete proposal from the government.

He said the meeting on Sayurday was inconclusive because the government had “nothing new” to offer.

On the other hand, police have booked Bainsla and his associates, including Himmat Singh, for rioting, damaging public property, endangering life, obstructing public way, criminal conspiracies. - PTI

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