Road jam outside the ministry for reservation
Mumbai: In an unprecedented development, nearly two dozen Maratha MLAs cutting across party lines on Thursday blocked the road outside the ministry in a high-security area demanding reservation for the community.
This is the third consecutive day of protest by MLAs from the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi to press for the reservation demand and express solidarity with Shivba organization leader Manoj Jarange-Patil, who is on hunger strike.
Raising slogans of ‘One Maratha, Lakh Maratha’ and ‘Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai’, the MLAs gathered outside the state government headquarters at Nariman Point and sat on the road, stopping traffic briefly in the morning.
Later, he was detained and taken to Azad Maidan police post in a van by Mumbai Police, but there were no reports of any untoward incident.
Nationalist Congress Party (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar reiterated the MVA’s demand to convene a special legislature session to discuss the issue in detail and finalize the Maratha quota.
“Any reservation above the 50 per cent limit will require an amendment to the Constitution, and the power to do so lies with the Centre,” said Rohit Pawar, grandson of NCP president Sharad Pawar.
He also said that “when ruling party MLAs are forced to block roads, it means there is a lack of communication with their own government.”
Rohit Pawar said, “What will such an agitation actually achieve is that the MLAs should put pressure on the government to give justice to the Marathas, or join Jarange-Patil’s agitation in Jalna.”
On Wednesday, the road was blocked after all-party Maratha MLAs had ‘locked’ the main gate of the ministry and staged a protest near Mahatma Gandhi’s statue a day earlier.
Sporadic protests continued in various districts of Maharashtra as Jarange-Patil’s hunger strike entered its ninth day and a government delegation was scheduled to meet them at Antarwali-Sarti village in Jalna this evening.
–IANS
