Protests by the ethnic Gujjar community spread to new areas Wednesday including the Indian capital with groups of demonstrators blockading roads and burning spare tyres till the police dispersed them, news reports said, according to dpa. The shephardic Gujjar community has been holding protests in north-western Rajasthan state since May 23, demanding to be classified as a scheduled tribe to qualify for government jobs and quotas in schools. At least 37 people have died in the violent protests. Gujjar leaders called for a complete "rasta roko" or road blockade in the capital and its suburbs on Thursday and the federal Home Ministry has put the region on an alert, PTI and IANS news agencies reported. The Gujjars, numbering about 50 million, live largely in Rajasthan and northern Haryana and Uttar Pradesh states, which border the Indian capital. In Rajasthan, the Gujjars are classified as other backward classes but want to be downgraded to a scheduled tribe (ST) as they feel this will get them a bigger share in reserved categories. Under India's affirmative action policy, quotas have been set for government jobs and admission to schools and colleges for disadvantaged sections who are listed as scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. The Rajasthan government has clamped the stringent National Security Act, under which a person can be arrested without a warrant, in 15 districts. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje appealed to the community to stop violence and engage in dialogue in full-page advertisements in local newspapers Wednesday. She said fresh quotas could only be set by the federal government and she had referred the issue to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The prime minister's office said the matter had been referred to the federal Law Ministry. Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla was quoted as saying that these were time-buying tactics by the state and federal governments. "Only granting ST status for Gujjars will end the agitation," he said. Groups of Gujjars continued their protests for the sixth day, blockading several highways and rail tracks in Rajasthan leading to the cancellation of at least 10 trains that pass through the state. With trucks stranded on highways, several industries began facing a shortage of raw material. Rajasthan's tourism industry was also hit with the blockade of the Jaipur-Agra highway. Bainsla continued to camp with his followers in Bayana, about 150 kilometres west of state capital Jaipur, IANS reported. A large group of protestors, dressed in their traditional white Indian kurta shirts or dhotis, squatted on the railway track near by while the numbers at the camp was growing daily as more and more community members poured in from villages across Rajasthan. The bodies of 12 members who died in police firing during the clashes were kept on slabs of ice in a tent at the camp. Most of the protestors had died when the police fired on mobs on two occasions while they were attacking police stations over the weekend. The army and federal police were patrolling all sensitive areas in the state to prevent any acts of violence. The latest violence comes a year after simklar protests by Gujjars in Rajasthan claimed 26 lives.
