Gujjar solution likely today

Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje is likely to clinch a peaceful solution to the ongoing Gujjar agitation in the final round of talks with community leader Col. Kirori Singh Bainsla on Tuesday.

Satisfied with the negotiations which took place with the state government representatives in Jaipur on Monday, leaders of the five member Gujjar team said all their demands were discussed in a cordial atmosphere.

“All our demands were discussed. The government appears to be very positive and there is no confrontation with them. We are hopeful that an agreement could be arrived at between Col. Bainsla and CM Raje on Tuesday,” Delhi MLA and member of the Gujjar delegation Ramvir Singh Bidhuri told this newspaper.

Apart from the main demand of Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjars’ demand for Rs 10 lakhs each as compensation to all those killed in police firing during the protests and the state government’s offer of special reservation (around four to six per cent as nomadic tribe) was also brought on the table.

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Gujjars paralyse Delhi

At least two persons were killed, one of them in police firing, and 14 security personnel injured in violent clashes between Gujjar demonstrators and the security forces in Delhi and Haryana on Thursday. The Gujjars took over the areas bordering the national capital and paralysed rail and road traffic, completely disrupting normal life till late in the afternoon.

One person was killed when the police opened fire on agitators, blocking traffic on the national highway at Patti Kalyana in Panipat district, while the other died in a stampede reportedly triggered by the police action at Samalkha in Haryana. State chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two persons.

On the war path over their demand for Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjar community, observing "martyrs' day", poured into the national capital region since the early hours of the morning and blocked major roads leading to New Delhi. The security forces resorted to lathicharges, lobbed teargas shells and fired rubber bullets to disperse violent mobs at Mehrauli, Mathura Road, Gazaipur and Anand Vihar, among other areas. Nearly 110 agitators were detained by the police.

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