Gujjar-government talks to continue on Saturday

After days of uncertainty, Gujjar leaders on Friday held talks with the Rajasthan government in a bid to find ways to resolve their 22-day-old stir for Scheduled Tribe status and agreed to continue the parleys on Saturday.

"The talks have been held in a very cordial atmosphere," Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament Ram Das Agarwal, who was part of the government's nine- member team, told reporters after two-hours of deliberations.

Besides Scheduled Tribe status, Gujjars have been demanding an ex-gratia payment Rs 10 lakh for the next of the kin of those killed in police firing and a job for one of the family members of the deceased. They are also demanding a compensation of Rs 3 to 5 lakhs for the injured.

Agarwal refused to divulge details about the deliberations and only said that the parleys will continue on Saturday.

Asked if Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla will be joining the talks, he said, "It depends of him. We will welcome him if he comes for the talks".

Gujjar leader Masood Chowdhary said the state government gave a patient hearing to the community's demands.

The 28-member team of the Gurjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti was led by Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, a Nationalist Congress Party Member of Legislative Assembly from Delhi.

Bainsla, who nominated the Gujjar delegation, did not attend the parleys. He is camping with his supporters in Bharatpur's Karwadi-Pilupura area, the nerve centre of the agitation.

The government side included four ministers--L N Dave, Sanwar Lal Jat, Nathu Singh Gujjar and Nathu Singh Gujjar and the state's chief interlocuter S N Thanvi.

Preliminary talks were held in Bayana in Bharatpur on Monday, but Bainsla put the precondition of the release of 25 women arrested for damaging rail tracks in Dausa district last week, for the talks to be held in Jaipur. The women were granted bail by a Dausa sessions court on Thursday.