Udaipur : Despite agreement by the state government on most of the demands put up by the tribal protestors in a peace talk held on Sunday, tension, chaos and violence continued on the fourth day in Udaipur and Dungarpur districts. Violence erupted near Bilakh village in Rishabhdeo block of Udaipur district in the evening as more than hundred tribal men climbed atop hills and rained stones on policemen. A police officer and four constables reportedly got injured, cops fired shells of tear gas which were caught by the agitators and hurled back at the force.
Senior leaders urged the agitators to end the stir and informed them about the result of the peace meeting however, the mob behaved uncontrollably without paying heed to any appeals. Similar incidents of mob fury was reported from Jhadol block where agitators ransacked liquor shop, pelted stones and even attacked the tehsildar’s vehicle. The Tehsildar managed to escape on a bike but his driver sustained head injuries.
Meanwhile, traffic movement was restored by late evening on the Udaipur-Ahmedabad National Highway-8 after four days of blockade. Before the commutation began, the impediments, stones etc were cleared with the help of earth moving equipment and machines. Veteran leaders, public representatives, sarpanchs of all the villages located on the NH-8 affected by the stir, inspected the entire 10 kilometer long stretch between Kankri Doongri in Bichhiwada (Dungarpur) to Kherwada before the road was opened for public.
DGP (crime) ML Lathar, senior IPS officers Dinesh MN and Anand Srivastava who were sent as the CMs representative reached Udaipur on Saturday night took charge of the situation in the disturbed areas. The marathon peace meeting was held on Sunday noon which continued for more than 3 hours. The ‘sarv party’ meeting was attended by many of the tribal representatives including BJP, BTP and Congress MLAs and MPs of South Rajasthan. The meeting held by TAD minister Arjun Bamaniya was attended by CWC member and Ex MP Raghuvir Singh Meena, Udaipur MP Arjunlal Meena, Ganesh Goghra, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Chunnilal Garasiya, Sushil Katara, KanakMal Katara, Dayaram Parmar, Tarachand Bagora and many other veteran leaders and influential people from the tribal community.
BTP legislators RamPrasad and Rajkumar Roat represented the agitators. ” A consensus has been arrived at on the main issue for 1167 posts under the REET exam 2018. The state government would constitute a committee to discuss the legalities on putting up a SLP before the honorable Supreme Court. It is a judicial issue which would be tackled accordingly” Bamniya told the media. Ex MP Raghuvir Meena said in the meeting it was also agreed that ex-gratia would be given as per government norms to the family of the youths who died in the police firing on Saturday night. Meena said one of the bodies is yet to be identified which has been kept at Dungarpur mortuary. Two others are said to be injured in the firing. Sources also claimed that one youth died after falling from a bridge near Kherwada on Friday when the police chased the mob out of the settlement.
Speaking about other conditions that were put up by the agitators, Meena said police would hold investigations to find out the involvement of youths in the rampage and those who are found innocent would be freed from charges. He also said that a committee would further probe to find out the involvement of miscreants from other states. Meena said the BTP legislators have agreed to end the stir and also ensured the delegation that the tribal youths would not resort to similar violence in future. It was also decided that a committee would undertake a survey to assess the loss during the three days.
On Saturday late night, violence had erupted in Kherwada as a mob attacked the toll plaza here and broke window panes of the cabins. They torched some bikes and set ablaze a saw mill with a huge stock of wood. Udaipur SP KailashChandra Bishnoi sustained injuries during the encounter and had to be hospitalised.
Meanwhile IG Dinesh MN held a meeting with some villagers in Dungarpur area. The officer met the volunteers chosen under the Gram Rakshak and Police Mitra schemes and urged them to help the department in curbing violence and restoring normalcy in the disturbed region. He asked them to assist the cops in patrolling along the highway and ensure that vehicular movement is not affected further.
In Udaipur, the internet service remained suspended throughout the day however, after the agreement in the peace meeting, collector ChetanRam Deora said internet would be resumed in the municipal limits by night but would remain suspended in other blocks of the district.