Protesting Gujjar women have blocked the Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Agra railways, leaving almost 40,000 passengers stranded, according to the NDTV Tuesday.
More than 50 trains on that route have been cancelled and this stand-off could continue for the next 24 hours.
The government of Rajasthan state in India is refraining from taking any action against the protesters as there are signs of thestand-off with Gujjars winding down.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has once again appealed to the Gujjars to sit down for talks.
"Due to the disruption of rail and road movements the people of this state and the country are facing problems. I appeal to the protesters to spare the rail traffic. They should come forward to talk," said the chief minister.
Railway tracks at Bandikuian near Dausa are occupied and all trains from Ahmedabad to Delhi have been cancelled. This rail route via Jaipur is the main link between North India, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
People have a huge force squatting on the tracks and they have put their women in front, nobody wants to use force against them as this may complicate and aggravate the situation.
The railways have also been forced to rope in buses to reach passengers who are stranded on tracks. Stranded people are considering using buses since the timeline of the rail blockade is uncertain.
Meanwhile, the emotional Gujjars will finally cremate their dead on Tuesday at the locations where they were killed in police firing - Bayana, Sikandra and Sawai Madhopur.
Their post-mortem was finally done on Monday, signalling a possible end to the nearly 15 day-long stand-off with the Rajasthan government. The Gujjars did not allow the post-mortem to happen and held on to the bodies of the 38 killed as symbols of the protests.
In the past weeks, Gujjar people have been protesting for their scheduled tribe status, and violence, which is spilling over to New Delhi and other regions surrounding Rajasthan, has killed more than 40 people.
Source:Xinhua
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