Chopra Committee to submit report to Raj govt on Dec 17

Jaipur, Dec 17: Justice Jasraj Chopra Committee, constituted by the Rajasthan Government to examine the Gujjar community's demand of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, will submit its report to the government today.

The government will then forward the report to the Centre. A day before submission of the report, Rajasthan Food and Civil Supplies Minister Kirorilal Meena on Sunday sent his resignation to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and BJP state president Mahesh Sharma to pile pressure on the State Government against the report.

According to sources, his resignation letter was delivered by his wife, Golma Devi to the Chief Minister Office and the state party headquarters. Kirorilal is from the Meena community, who has been up in arms against any proposal relating to granting of SC status to the Gujjar community.

Earlier, Sharma has said that the report would not affect the prospects of other communities in availing quota benefits under the SC, ST or OBC category in the state.

He further added he did not see possibility of any clash between the Gujjar and Meena communities as the report was unlikely to hurt interests of any community. The Committee was constituted by the State Government on June 13 in compliance with the peace understanding signed between Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and representatives of the Gujjar Reservation Action Committee, led by its convenor Colonel Kirodi Singh Bainsla, on June 4 after a week-long pitched agitation.

The agitation, launched by the Action Committee throughout the state from May 29, had witnessed widespread violence. 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. ANI>