By IANS
Jaipur : Rajasthan's Gujjar community plans to hold a maha panchayat in Jhalawar, over 350 km from here, on Aug 26 to exert more pressure on the state government to meet their demand of granting them scheduled tribe (ST) status.
"The agitation has not cooled off. We would hold a maha panchayat in Jhalawar on August 26 and before that we plan to take out a mass rally in Chittorgarh on August 13," Prahlad Gunjal, a Gujjar leader said.
He claimed that over 300,000 people are expected to attend the meeting in Jhalawar.
On July 16, a delegation of the Gujjar Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti (GASS), the body spearheading the agitation demanding tribal status for the community, had presented its report before a high-powered committee headed by Justice Jasraj Chopra.
The report included over 134,000 affidavits and 20,000 pictures from all over Rajasthan supporting the Gujjar demand.
The delegation had also presented 200 CDs in support of their case. A three-member committee was formed after protesting Gujjars and the state government reached an agreement June 4 to look into the community's demands.
Yogesh Atal, a retired judge of the Rajasthan High Court and sociologist of international standing, is also a member of the committee. It has already begun hearings and is slated to submit its report in three months.
Gujjars, presently belonging to the other backward classes (OBC), held violent protests all over Rajasthan from May 29 to June 4 demanding their inclusion into the ST category. Normal life was paralysed and at least 26 people were killed in the violence.