Gujjars agitation affects train services in India

Delhi/Mumbai/Jaipur : Locomotives between New Delhi and Mumbai and several other parts of India suffered heavily on Tuesday after ethnic Gujjars demanding social security stopped traffic in Rajasthan.

Check here : List of trains canceled because of various reasons

The Gujjars, wearing colourful dresses with turbans on head and armed with lathies, and demanding reservation in government jobs and other facilities, blocked the railway track near Bayana in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan.

Hundreds of people under the leadership of Colonel (retd) K.S. Bainsla, convener of Gujjar Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, also prevented train traffic at Piloo Ka Pura forcing the Indian Railways to divert and cancel many trains.

“We are going to stay on this track till social justice is imparted to us in deeds and respect. We have been cheated three times, we have lost the faith…this is a very important rally route and we did not want to block it but we have been forced into it,” said one of the Gujjars, Col Kirori Singh Bainsla.

Under his leadership, the Gujjars occupied rail tracks near Bayana in Bharatpur district to press for their reservation demand.

Since 2007, the Gujjars, who already have reservation under the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category, have been demanding a special job quota or Schedule tribe status.

In 2008, the Vasundhara Raje government finally gave in after the Gujjars carried out a sit-in on the same railway tracks for more than a month. They got five percent reservation in a special category, but since that crossed the Supreme Court’s cap of 50%, it was stayed by the High court.

A Mumbai report said the Western Railway (WR) has diverted many trains to avoid blockade of train movement.

At least 22 trains connecting the national capital Delhi with India’s commercial capital Mumbai have been affected.