Dharna over Dalit’s murder ends after admn agrees to demands

Jaisalmer: On the fourth day after the murder of Kojaram, a Dalit, by a group of men in Asadi village in Barmer district, an agreement was reached between the administration and the protesting family members and people of the community, following which the sit-in protest outside the mortuary was called off.

The protest ended after the administration promised reasonable compensation and government jobs on contract to two family members of the deceased.

Six rounds of talks were held by district collector Lok Bandhu, SP Digant Anand, MLA Mewaram Jain and other public representatives with the Dalit community and family members, after which the body was taken home from the mortuary on Saturday.

People of the Dalit community had marched to the district collector’s office from the dharna site on Friday. They gave a memorandum addressed to the CM to the district collector in which they demanded arrest of the 17 accused named by Kojaram’s family, suspension of police officers who took no action on repeated complaints by the family that there was threat to their lives, compensation of Rs 1 crore, and government jobs to two family members.

After this, the sixth round talks started with the administration and went on for 2.5 hours after which the deadlock broke. The administration agreed to the demands of arrest of the accused, reopen FIRs lodged earlier by Kojaram, and action against the negligent police officers. The family members gave consent for postmortem on Friday evening. On Saturday, the administration agreed to demands for appropriate compensation and government jobs on contract to two family members.

District collector Lok Bandhu said compensation would be given as per rules to the family. Lakshman Badera, who was leading the dharna, said the government had accepted all their demands.

Courtesy : TOI

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