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Gujjar issue: fresh talks likely

Sunny Sebastian

— Photo: PTI/ Lakshman Iyer

some hope: Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla reads the letter sent by the Rajasthan government inviting him for talks, at Pilupura in Bharatpur on Thursday.

JAIPUR: Avenues for a fresh dialogue between the agitating Gujjars and the beleaguered Rajasthan government opened on Thursday with the authorities here extending a formal invitation to Gujjar supremo Kirori Singh Bainsla. Principal Secretary S.N. Thanvi, camping in the area, handed over the invitation to Col. Bainsla at Pilupura, where the latter has been squatting since May 23 along with thousands of his followers to press for Scheduled Tribe status.

“I delivered the letter to Col. Bainsla in person at 12.30 p.m. and am waiting for a reply from him,” Mr. Thanvi said talking to The Hindu on phone from Bayana around 7 p.m. “I am optimistic about Col. Bainsla’s response. His attitude was positive when I met him,” Mr. Thanvi informed.

Col. Bainsla reportedly conveyed to the authorities his desire to meet senior leaders of the Gujjar community from other parts of the country before he gave permission for the talks. In response to this, the Government told him to give a list of the leaders he wanted to meet so that they could be allowed to travel to Pilupura. Indications are that Col. Bainsla would not go to the State capital for talks and instead, he might send a delegation.

While things started looking up at Pilupura, in Sikandra in Dausa district, another trouble spot where 20 Gujjars were killed in police firing on May 24, the bodies of the victims continued to remain on the National Highway No.11. Their post mortems were carried out on Wednesday. Hopes for their cremation during the day were dashed after the families of the victims and the community leaders could not reach unanimity on their mass cremation.

“Majority of the families have agreed for mass cremation but there are seemingly two or three families still insisting on taking the bodies to their villages for last rites,” Hari Singh Mahuwa, former Chief Whip of the Congress in the Rajasthan Assembly, said when contacted. He expected the cremations to take place on Friday.

The State remained largely peaceful during the day but for one incident of bursting of tear gas shells to remove a road block at Kuri village in Dausa. The police took into custody about a dozen persons from the place.

The road block at Khedli in Bamnawas subdivision in Sawai Madhopur continued while the members of other communities in the predominantly Meena area, submitted a memorandum to the Sub Divisional Magistrate asking him to get the road cleared. The Bar Association of Sawai Madhopur decided to boycott the courts till the issue is settled.

Bomb hoax

There was a bomb scare in the capital when someone delivered a letter to the watchman outside the Kotak Mahindra Bank on the Sardar Patel Marg, which contained a threat to blow up the building along with the ones housing the HSBC bank and a jewellery showroom in the vicinity. The buildings were evacuated immediately and searched. The searches did not reveal anything.

Panel term extended

The Rajasthan government has extended the tenure of the Justice (retd.) F.C. Bansal Commission, appointed last year in the wake of the Gujjar agitation demanding Scheduled Tribe status, till February 28, 2009.

Set up initially to probe the violence and police firing during the Gujjar agitation on May 29, 2007 and the subsequent days till June 4, 2007, the terms of reference of the commission now include this year’s police firing in Pilupura and other places in the State.

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