Rail traffic on the Delhi-Mumbai route remained disrupted for the second day on Saturday with hundreds of Gujjars continuing to block the track near Malarna Dungar in Rajasthan’s Sawai Madhopur district. The protesters are demanding 5% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions.
Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, spearheading the agitation, announced that any talks with the State government would be held “nowhere else, but only here on the track.”
His statement was in response to Tourism Minister Vishvendra Singh’s offer of talks in Jaipur. Mr. Singh, a member of the government committee appointed to hold negotiations, reached the protest site on Saturday evening.
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One train were cancelled, four were short-terminated and 21 trains between Delhi and Mumbai were diverted through other routes.
Many bus services hit
Rajasthan Roadways was also forced to suspend operations on the Karauli-Hindon route as the protesters blocked the road at Gudla. They earlier blocked National Highway-89 from Ajmer to Nagaur, but it was re-opened by the police.
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Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the government had already done whatever was in its power. “The Centre may consider fulfilling the demand of the Gujjars by amending the Constitution, as it has done for [reservation to] the poor. Gujjars should submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
Additional Director-General of Police (Law & Order) M.L. Lather said there were no reports of any untoward incident at the sites of the protests . Sufficient police and Rajasthan Armed Constabulary (RAC) forces had been deployed to meet any exigency, and the administration was keeping a watch, he said.
Though Gujjars, along with nomadic communities Banjara, Gadia-Lohar, Raika and Gadariya, have been included in the State’s Other Backward Class (OBC) category since 1994, they have contended that the dominant castes were taking away a major share of the quota. The community is demanding the Most Backward Class status with a provision for an exclusive 5% reservation.
Gujjars now get 1% reservation in addition to the OBC quota, within the 50% ceiling mandated by the Supreme Court.