More worryingly, Gujjar agitators today blocked an arterial road in the outskirts of Delhi by burning tyres and causing a major traffic jam. A group of protestors demanding ST status for the community gathered this morning at the M G Road area, where the major malls are located, and set afire tyres, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sumit Kumar said. This led to a traffic jam, he said, adding the protestors dispersed after police intervened.
With the Gujjar community threatening to bring the National Capital Region (NCR) to a standstill tomorrow, the Union Home Ministry has put the region on high alert. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil chaired a meeting with Special Secretary (Internal Security) M L Kumawat and Delhi Police chief Y S Dadwal yesterday and is understood to have later briefed the Prime Minister on the situation.
Meanwhile, Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor has stated that more troops could be dispatched to Rajasthan if required by the state authorities to tackle the agitation. At present over 2,100 army personnel (eight columns) have been deployed in violence-hit areas here, in neighbouring Dausa and other affected regions.
The 15 districts where the stringent NSA, under which a person can be arrested without a warrant, has been clamped are Ajmer, Alwar, Baran, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Bundi, Dausa, Dholpur, Jaipur, Jhalawar, Jhunjhunu, Karauli, Kota, Sawaimadhopur and Tonk.
Turning the heat on 70-year-old Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, the Rajasthan government is following up on cases of murder, arson and violence slapped against him.
Politically, the Rajasthan government took out full page advertisement in most dailies out of the state stating their position on the issue and the fact that a package of Rs 238 crores had been already been announced exsclusively for the community. The government has also appealed that the bodies of protestors who died during police firing in Sikandra and elsewhere be cremated, while Gujjars are insisting that till their demands are met this will not be done.