Rajasthan government said the Gurjar community could be shifted from OBC to scheduled tribe category only through Constitutional amendments and that it was not "averse" to recommending the same to the Centre.
JAIPUR: Rajasthan government on Tuesday said the Gurjar community could be shifted from OBC to scheduled tribe category only through Constitutional amendments and that it was not "averse" to recommending the same to the Centre.
A ten-member Cabinet Advisory Committee has asked the district collectors in the state to prepare a fresh report on the matter by July 31, and after considering the report, the government could recommend to the Centre to take up it for Constitutional amendments, Home Minister G C Kataria told reporters here.
"The BJP government is not averse to recommend (the matter) to the Centre but we will have to follow a due procedure," Kataria said, adding "We never put Gurjars' demand of quota shifting in the party manifesto".
The BJP government would take up the matter after the collectors' report and get it passed in the Cabinet when required, he said.
Putting the onus of responsibility of not deciding on Gurjar quota issue on the state Congress government of early eighties, he said, "the then Shivcharan Mathur government should have decided this issue way back in 1981."
Mathur government had recommended only the Banjara and Gadaria Lohar to the scheduled tribe category, and left Gurjars for the OBC which was taken up during the A B Vajpayee government at the Centre, Kataria said.
"Following the Gurjar Action Committee's warning of 'chakka jam', the government had invited all factions of the community for dialogue but one Kirori Singh Bhansolia who gave the call did not turn up at any meeting," Kataria said.
The protestors not only violated the prohibitory orders promulgated in eight districts since Sunday but also attacked policemen, dragged them and beaten them up, Kataria said, adding, this "prompted the police to resort to lathicharge, bursting of teargas shells, water bullets and then finally fire in air".
On the Congress demand for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's resignation, he said it had no substance as the "dispute is the offspring of the previous Congress regime and the BJP government is trying to solve it through the Cabinet Advisory Committee."
The situation was tense but under control by the evening, he claimed.
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