Chopra Committee to submit report tomorrow

Jaipur, Dec 14 (UNI) Justice Jasraj Chopra Committee, constituted by the Rajasthan Government to examine the Gujjar community's demand of ST status, will submit its report to the government tomorrow.

Committee Chairman Justice Chopra told reporters here today that the report was being given final touches and the same would be presented to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje .

He said Chief Secretary DC Samant had conveyed to the committee that an appointment had been fixxed for the committtee to meet the Chief Minister and present her the report tomorrow at 1700 hrs tomorrow.

The Committee was constituted by the state government on June 13 in compliance with the peace understanding signed between Chief Minister Raje and representatives of the Gujjar Reservation Action Committee, led by its convenor Col Kirodi Singh Bainsla, on June 4 after a weeklong pitched agitation.

The agitation, launched by the action committee throughout the state from May 29, had witnessed widespread violence, arson, damages to railway tracks and police firings at a number of places.

The violence and police firings had left 25 people dead and scores of others injured.

The committee was initially accorded a term of three months for submission of the report but later the state government extended on September 15 the term by three months to enable it to accomplish the task by December 15.

The Gujjars' demand of ST status was countered by the Meena community and several other tribal groups in the state, demanding disbanding of the committee.

During the six months, the committee received over 14,600 representations, recorded oral presentation by around 2000 delegations or individuals, visited 147 villages and ordered survey of over 400 villages to testify evidence.

The documents examined by the committee also included reports of District Collectors of the 28 of the 32 districts on the status of the Gujjar communities in their respective districts.

UNI