Rajasthan govt invites Gujjar leaders for talks

JAIPUR: In a bid to quell the agitation by Gujjars demanding Schedule Tribe status, the Rajasthan government on Wednesday invited their representatives for talks to resolve the crisis in the wake of the violence that has left 14 dead so far.

A meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje after she returned from Delhi on Tuesday night, decided to form a four-member ministerial team to hold dialogue with the Gurjar Reservation Sangharsh Samiti leaders including Karnal Kirori Singh Bainsla, Parliamentary Affairs Minister B S Rajawat said.

The Gujjar leaders were contacted by officials over the phone to come for talks to resolve the issue, Rajawat said, maintaining that they had agreed to hold negotiations.

The meeting also reviewed the law and order situation which was tense, he said adding that step were being taken to end the spate of violence which had affected among others the districts of Dausa, Karauli and Bundi.

The BJP government has been working with a Cabinet sub-committee and district collectors to prepare a status report of the Gurjar community on the matter, he said.

Last week, Home Minister G C Kataria had held a meeting with Rajasthan Gujjar Mahasabha, another body of the community backed by BJP minister K L Gurjar, on the government's steps to resolve the quota issue, officials said, observing that the other faction went ahead with its plan to blockade highways as part of its 'chakka jam' agitation.

Before the initiative for talks taken by the Raje government, Samiti chief Bhainsla told reporters in Dausa that, "We only want that a recommendation letter be to the Centre on our demand...We will not withdraw our agitation until our demand is met".

Gujjar leaders said they would not allow the cremation to take place until the government gave compensation to the next of kin of the victims and jobs to each family.