Rail and road traffic was disrupted after Gujjars demanding reservation in jobs and education as a most backward class (MBC) intensified their agitation on Monday and occupied the railway track at Peelupura in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district. As many as 29 trains on the Delhi-Mumbai route were diverted and three cancelled.
The government authorised the Collectors of eight districts to make preventive detentions under the National Security Act in order to deal with the agitation. While Gujjar supremo Kirori Singh Bainsla joined the protesters at the railway track, others blocked the Bayana-Hindaun road.
About 220 buses from five major Rajasthan Roadways depots of Dausa, Hindaun, Karauli, Bharatpur and Bayana were stopped and the bus service on the Jaipur-Agra route was halted, causing inconvenience to a large number of passengers. Gujjars also held demonstrations elsewhere in the State, including in Ajmer and Kota, while Internet services were suspended in Gujjar-dominated areas of several districts.
Consensus on 14 points
The agitation started amid indications of division in the Gujjar leadership, as a section of the community leaders held talks with the government in Jaipur on Saturday and reached a consensus on 14 points. The faction, led by Himmat Singh, held a meeting at Nagla Gargara village near Bayana on Monday and called for an end to the agitation.
Gujjars have been seeking inclusion of a reservation law passed by the Assembly last year in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, appointments to backlog posts, benefit of 5% reservation in the ongoing recruitments, regularisation of 1,252 employees appointed through the MBC quota and implementation of Devnarayan Scheme for the community's progress and welfare.
The Assembly passed the Rajasthan Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions in the State and of Appointments and Posts in Services under the State) Amendment Act, 2019, on February 13 last year. The four other nomadic communities given the quota benefit along with the Gujjars were Banjara, Gadia-Lohar, Raika and Gadariya.
Health Minister Raghu Sharma – a member of the Cabinet sub-committee on the MBC quota – said outside the Assembly that the government was open to further negotiations with Gujjars. “The door is always open for holding talks. The State government has already given 5% reservation which was pending for several years,” he stated.
