Gujjar leaders today announced they will begin an agitation from May 23 for five per cent reservation in government jobs and education institutions in Rajasthan.
The agitation will begin from Pilukapura in Bharatpur district, Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, which held a mahapanchayat' of the community today in the district's Adda village, said.
The announcement came after a Samiti delegation held a meeting last night in Jaipur with a group of ministers on the reservation demand.
Today, Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti head Kirori Singh Bainsla discussed that meeting with other community leaders in Adda before making the announcement.
"People in our community are not happy with the government. Bainsla discussed the outcome of the meeting with the people to seek their response," Himmat Singh, the organisation's spokesperson, said.
Bainsla told reporters in Adda that he was not satisfied with last night's meeting the delegation had with the ministers.
He said he will not back out of the agitation if his community did not get its rights. The community faces injustice throughout the country and the agitation will begin if the government fails to address the issue, her said.
Apart from the mahapanchayat in Adda village, two other Gujjar meetings were held in the district.
A meeting at Marauli village was organised by a Gujjar group backing Bainsla, and the other at Tonta Baba ka Sthan where rival leader Ramvir Singh Bidhuri accused Bainsla of misleading the community for several years.
We will form a 51-member and will put pressure on the government to fulfil its promise to give five per cent reservation to Gujjars and other castes and include this in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, Bidhuri, who leads the Akhil Bhartiya Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said.
Tight security arrangements were made in Bharatpur ahead of the Gujjar mahapanchayat. The police said arrangements were in place for the security of public property including railway tracks.
The Gujjars in Rajasthan already get one per cent reservation in the 'most backward' category but are demanding a five per cent quota under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) slab.
Last October, the Rajasthan Assembly passed a bill to raise OBC reservation from 21 to 26 per cent to create a new category within it for Gujjars and some other castes.
However, the high court stayed the bill as it would have increased the reservation to 54 per cent.
Later, the Supreme Court also directed the state government not to exceed the 50 per cent reservation limit.
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