Gujjars end Agitation, as Rajastha agrees to 5% Quota

Jaipur, May 28 (IANS): The Gujjar community, whose members have been squatting on railway tracks and blocking road traffic in Rajasthan demanding five percent reservation in education and government jobs, on Thursday called off their agitation as the state government agreed to their demand, a minister said.

“The Rajasthan government will bring a new reservation bill in the next session of the assembly to be held soon. We will see that this time it does not fall to any legal hurdle,” said Medical and Health Minister Rajendra Rathore.

“We will try to have this five percent reservation listed under the ninth schedule of the constitution,” he said.

The agreement was reached after a four-hour-long meeting between Gujjar Arakshan Sangarsh Samiti leader Col. (retd) Kirori Singh Bainsla and the state government’s three-member ministerial team – comprising Rathore, Social Welfare Minister Arun Chaturvedi and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Hem Singh Bhadana.

After the meeting, Bainsla said: “We have decided to call off our agitation. I am now going to Pilu Ka Pura, and will make a formal announcement there.”

“I hope the government adheres to the agreement,” he said.

The Gujjars were demanding, among others, five percent reservation in state government jobs under the special backward class category and that too according to them in the maximum permissible limit of 50 percent reservation.

The agitating Gujjars have been squatting on railway tracks in Pilu Ka Pura near Bayana town since May 21. The agitation has affected the movement of trains, including that on Delhi-Mumbai sector, and movement of vehicles on the Jaipur-Agra highway.

On Wednesday, the Rajasthan High Court had directed the state government to remove the protesting Gujjars from railway tracks and clear blockades on roads.