Ashok Gehlot again appeals to Gujjar to end agitation

Making a fresh appeal to Gujjars to call off their agitation, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot today said the community should understand the government's limitations over the reservation issue as the matter is sub-judice.

"What is in our hands will be done for sure, but since the matter is sub-judice, there are some limitations too and they (Gujjars) must understand it," Gehlot told reporters.

The stand-off between Gujjars and the Rajasthan government entered the ninth day today causing hardship to people and huge loss to industries, railways and roadways.

"The situation remains the same and a core committee's meeting is underway here at Pilukapura to discuss further course of action," Dr Roop Singh, an aide of Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla, told PTI.

Gehlot alleged that the conspiracy to revive the reservation issue in Rajasthan was made during the marriage of BJP President Nitin Gadkari's son in Nagpur recently.

"We have information that few of the people who attended the marriage of Nitin Gadkari's son had made the plan for the agitation," Gehlot alleged.

He said that the recruitment drive in the state will continue and would not be put on hold under any pressure.

"Recruitment will not be stopped. We are going to recruit around 8,000 police constables and teachers for which lakhs of candidates have applied," he said.

Gujjars have blocked the National Highway 11 in Dausa, and several other interior routes in Karauli, Sawaimadhopur, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Alwar districts.

They have also squatted on railway tracks in Bharatpur, Dausa, Tonk and Sawaimadhopur.

The NWR railways has so far refunded over Rs 1.5 crore following cancellation of around 45,000 tickets in the wake of the Gujjar agitation.

However, there is no report of any violence from anywhere in the state.