Maratha groups protest for the third day demanding reservation in Maharashtra
Mumbai: Maratha groups on Tuesday continued their protests for the third day in several districts of the state demanding reservation for the community.
Concerned over the spread of the agitation, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has called an all-party meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday to discuss and resolve the issue.
Maratha MLAs from all political parties protested near the Gandhi statue outside the ministry at Nariman Point and are likely to meet Governor Ramesh Bais later to demand a special legislature session to finalize the community quota.
Tushar A., great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi said the Center had very successfully planned violence in New Delhi to stop the anti-CAA-NRC protests, which had become a major embarrassment for the government.
Tushar Gandhi said in a sharp tone, “Now the same method has been adopted in Maharashtra to defame and derail the Maratha reservation movement.”
Another incident of arson in a government office was reported from Jalna, where some unidentified persons set a gram panchayat office on fire while raising pro-Kota slogans.
In Solapur a large number of Maratha workers lay down on railway tracks and blocked the passage of at least one long-distance train while police attempted to clear the railway lines.
A local BJP office was set on fire in Naiknagar in Hingoli district, while in Pune a large number of Maratha workers took to the river in a ‘Jal-Samadhi’ protest.
Public bus services remained closed for the second day in parts of Parbhani district and in Malkapur in Buldhana district, protesters painted black paint on the CM’s posters on a vehicle.
A large number of Marathas started a serial hunger strike in Chunabhatti in Mumbai and Mungse village in Nashik district, demanding immediate announcement of quota.
Schools and colleges remained closed in Shevgaon in Ahmednagar district on Tuesday and students participated in the protest.
In Pune, protesters blocked the Pune-Bengaluru highway by throwing burning truck tires on the Neyveli bridge and sitting on the road and raising anti-government slogans, leading to a 10-km long traffic jam on both sides of the vital route.
A large number of workers took out a symbolic ‘funeral’ procession of the state government at Tembhurni in Solapur district, while half a dozen Nagpur-Pune sleeper bus services were suspended for the day.
In Beed, which was rocked by large-scale arson and violence on Monday, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) worker Yogesh Kshirsagar alleged that his MLA brother Sandeep R. Burning of Kshirsagar was a pre-planned conspiracy.
Yogesh Kshirsagar claimed, “Before setting our house on fire, someone had switched off the electricity supply here, the stone-pelting miscreants had bottles filled with petrol and the police proved completely incapable of stopping them.”
Shivba outfit president Manoj Jarange-Patil, whose indefinite hunger strike continued for the seventh day on Tuesday, again appealed to his supporters in the state to desist from any violence and carry on peaceful agitation.
–IANS
