Gurjar sammelan to be held on Dec 16

Chandigarh: Former Haryana MLA and senior leader of the Gurjar community, Dharam Singh Chhoker has called a national Gurjar Sammelan (convention) on December 16 at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP). The aim is to organize the community against alleged neglect by Central and state governments.

Former MLA from Samalakha, Panipat district in Haryana, Chokker said community members from Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand will participate in the convention.

According to Chokker, despite the community’s hold on 44 Lok Sabha seats in the country, they don’t have significant representation in the Union government. He said a member of the Gurjar community, who is an MP from Faridabad, has been made minister of state (MoS) in a ministry in which there are already two others.

Similarly, he said, the community has considerable presence in western UP but the state government has not given it any representation. He said the December 16 convention will be the first of its kind after 30 years. A similar event was organized by former Union minister and senior Congress leader Rajesh Pilot in Samalkha, Haryana in 1989, he said.

Chhoker said the convention will be held at Saharanpur’s Gandhi stadium and community members will be asked to close ranks against neglect of the community by the Centre and state governments. A major decision will also be taken with regard to the next parliamentary elections, he said.