Headway made to break Gujjar deadlock; postmortem begins today

Jaipur, May 29 (UNI) The process of breaking deadlock with Gujjar leaders made some headway with the Rajasthan government deciding to conduct the post-mortem of 14 victims of Sikandara police firing whose bodies have been lying at the mortuary of the SMS Hospital here since May 24.

BJP Spokesman Prakash Javadekar told UNI here that the state govenrment would take up the process of post-mortem of these victims later this evening.

After post-mortem the bodies would be handed over to kins of the victims for cremation, Mr Javadekar said.

Meanwhile, the deadlock over post-mortem of victims whose bodies were lying at dharna sites in Pillukapura-Karvari and Sikandara was still unresolved and efforts to resolve it were on, Mr Javadekar said.

He said if the Gujjar leaders allowed, the government would conduct post-mortem of these bodies at the nearest dispensary.

Meanwhile, sitting BJP MP from Bharatpur, Vishwendra Singh, who offered help to resolve the Gujjar reservation issue, expressed the hope that the deadlock with Gujjar leaders would soon be broken.

Mr Singh held discussions with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at her official residence here and later proceeded for Bharatpur via Delhi.

The MP is likely to mediate for the state government to bring Gujjar leaders to the table to resume talks.

Another high-level meeting was held at the CM's residence here to chalk out the strategy to persuade the Gujjar leaders, including Col Kirodi Singh Bainsla, to take back their week-long dharna at Pillukapura-Karvari and Sikandara and allow post-mortems and cremation of the police firing victims whose bodies were placed at the dharna sites.

The Chief Minister, several of her cabinet colleagues, Mr Javadekar, senior leader and former UP Minister Kalraj Mishra, party state president Om Prakash Mathur and several others participated in the meeting.

Meanwhile, handbills were air-dropped in Gujjar dominated pockets to take people into confidence over the efforts made by the state government on the Gujjar reservation issue and to appeal to people to maintain peace.

UNI SS SP US1715