Gujjar quota stalemate continues; rail services hit

JAIPUR: They sat, they talked at the SDM office of Malrana Dungar in Sawai Madhopur on Friday for more than five hours and promised to call off their ongoing agitation on the railway tracks passing through Maksudanpura.

But, there was again twist in the tale in the evening. Gujjars claimed that they were yet to see the draft of undertaking by the state government through which they wanted assurance that even if the Act promising them 5% reservation gets stuck in legal tangle, the state government will fight for them. Thus deadlock continued for the eight consecutive day on Friday when several trains remained affected on Delhi-Mumbai and Jaipur-Sawai Madhopur route and traffic on Jaipur-Agra via Sikandara and Jaipur-Sawai Madhopur via Tonk remained affected.

Cabinet minister Vishvendra Singh, who has been camping in Sawai Madhopur and is on and off to Malrana Dungar, talking to TOI, said, “We principally agreed to their demands and assured them whatever they wanted would be fulfilled. We were supposed to sign a memorandum of understanding late on Saturday evening. However, Kirori Singh Bainsla called up stating he will decide on it on Saturday morning.”

“We are hopeful that Gujjars will now understand that from sending a delegation including myself and IAS officer Neeraj K Pawan to passing a Bill, the state government has been sensitive. Let’s hope for the best,” he said.

“We have got certain assurances. But, everything would be finalized only seeing the draft which government officers said would be sent at 10 am on Saturday,” said Shailendra Singh, general secretary, Gujjar Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti after meeting.

The meeting was attended by Vishvendra Singh, cabinet minister Bhupendra Sahu, inspector general of police, Bharatpur range, Neeraj K Pawan, IAS officer, Sameer Kumar Singh, superintendent of police, Sawai Madhopur and from Gujjar representatives Shailendra Singh.