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Chopra panel submits report

Photo : Gopal Sunger

Vital document: Justice Jasraj Chopra handing over the report to Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Monday.

JAIPUR: The high-power Justice Jasraj Chopra Committee, appointed to examine the Gujjar community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan, submitted its report to the State Government here on Monday. Mr. Justice Chopra presented the 294-page report to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in her office.

The report comes against the backdrop of the resignation by Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kirorilal Meena in a late night drama over the weekend and the letters affirming quitting of Assembly seats sent by a Congress MLA and two Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs to the Meena community leaders in protest against the report.

The State Cabinet will take up the report on Tuesday to decide the future course of action.

Ms. Raje said the report would be presented to the Cabinet at 11-30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Pressure started building up on the State Government with scores of elected representatives of the Meena community such as panchayat members, sarpanches and office-bearers of Krishi Upaj Mandis thronging Mr. Kirorilal Meena’s house and submitting their resignations to him.

Mr. Meena – who had sent his wife, Golma Devi, to Ms. Raje’s official residence on Saturday night to deliver his letter of resignation – maintained a complete silence, pleading that he was ill, and did not react to the submission of report. He and other Meena leaders had earlier warned against sending the report to the Centre and opposed any move to shift Gujjars from OBC category to ST category.

The Meenas at present are the principal beneficiaries of reservation extended to Scheduled Tribes in Rajasthan. They fear that Gujjars’ inclusion in the ST category would take away a major chunk of their share in the quota.

The Gujjar leaders, including the Gujjar Reservation Action Committee leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, on the other hand opted to wait to know the report’s contents and the Cabinet’s stand on it. The Gujjars’ protest on the issue had led to police firing and widespread violence in the State in May this year, leaving 26 persons dead.

The high-power Committee, headed by retired Rajasthan High Court Judge Jasraj Chopra, was appointed by the State Government on June 13 this year in compliance with an understanding reached with the Gujjar leaders. Its term, which was initially for three months, was later extended by another three months to enable it to complete the task of making its recommendation on the Gujjars’ claim by December 15.

Ms. Raje noted that the committee had prepared and submitted the report within the stipulated time-frame after some hard work.

“This is probably the first committee that has not sought any further extension of time and completed its work with full responsibility,” she said.

Mr. Justice Chopra said the district and police administration, surveyors in villages and villagers had fully cooperated with the committee by providing the requisite information: “We have performed the task assigned to us. It is now for the Government to take action on it.”

Committee Member Yogesh Atal and Member-Secretary T. Srinivasan were also present on the occasion.

Prominent among those sending their resignations to the community leaders on the issue are Congress MLA Ramnarain Meena and Bahujan Samaj Party MLAs Suresh Meena and Murari Meena.

The State Government stepped up security arrangements in the sensitive districts in the wake of the submission of the report and deployed additional personnel from the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary and the Special Task Force to maintain law and order.

Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria said an alert had been sounded in the sensitive districts of Dausa, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Sawai Madhopur and Karauli since last Friday.

“The security forces are keeping a close watch in all sensitive areas to prevent any confrontation between the two communities,” he added.

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