Jaipur, February 10: The Gujjar agitation for five per cent quota in jobs and educational institutions turned violent on Sunday as shots were fired and three police vehicles torched in Dholpur.
The agitation spread to other places in Rajasthan on the third day of Gujjar Arakashan Sangharsh Samiti’s (GASS) indefinite rail-road blockade.
Unidentified miscreants fired 8-10 rounds in the air while the blockade on the Agra-Morena highway was in place, Dholpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Ajay Singh said.
A police jeep, Tavera car, and a bus were torched on the highway in the Kotwali area of Dholpur, he said.
Seven trains were diverted on the Delhi-Mumbai-Ajmer tracks and two were cancelled due to the ongoing agitation.
Five cops, who got injured in stone pelting, were given first aid, the SP said, adding five miscreants were detained after the huge mob of protesters were dispersed by firing teargas shells.
The incident occurred around 2 pm when hundreds of protesters jammed the traffic from either side, but it was cleared within one hour, he said.
“No firing was ordered from the police side”, Singh claimed.
“It appeared the gravel mafia men of Gujjar community have done this in the garb of Gujjar protest,” the SP apprehended.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who returned from two days tour to Delhi, told media, it was shocking that Gujjar leader Bainsla had said that the protest would be on peaceful note and there might be some miscreants in the Dholpur incident but Gujjar delegation should come for talk with a three-member ministerial committee for talks.
The roadways bus operation was suspended on the Sawaimadhopur-Dholpur highway, RSRTC PRO Sudhir Bhati said.
Bus operation on the Hindon-Karauli sections of highway covering Alwar, Bharatpur and Mathura was already suspended since yesterday, he said.
GASS activists also held road blocks in Nainwa (Bundi district), and Asind of Bhilwara district, and NH 58 near Ajmer in the forenoon, DGP-Law and Order M L Lather said, adding barring Dholpur there was no other incident in the state.
Thousands of agitators led by GASS patron Col K S Bainsla have continued their sit in on third consecutive day on the rail track between Malrana and Meemod railway stations, over one km stretch, in Sawaimadhopur district affecting rail services.
When contacted, Bainsla said, “Congress minister Vishwendra Singh and IAS Neeraj K Pawan had come for talks yesterday but without any agenda. Though they wanted us to send a delegation to Jaipur secretariat for talks, we did not accept. Everything related to five per cent quota would be solved in writing on this very spot. The Congress government is not serious on its promise of quota which it made in its manifesto. No one approached us today.”
However, reacting on Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s comments in which he said the reservation was possible through the constitutional amendment, Shailendra Singh, its general secretary, said the agitation would cover the entire state if the demands are not met in the next two days.
Why the chief minister had shed its shoulder on this issue and referring us to contact the Central Government, Singh said.
BJP state president Madan Lal Saini and former empowerment minister Arun Chaturvedi have demanded that the Congress should implement its manifesto in which it has promised five per cent quota to Gujjar community and four others.
A high-level meeting led by Chief Secretary D B Gupta was also convened at CMO in which Home Secretary Rajeev Swaroop, DGP Kapil Garg, and ADG Law and Order ML Lather reviewed the situation and planned a strategy to deal with the agitation.
(Sourced from tribuneindia.com)
