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Pune: Even as the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government filed a review petition in the Supreme Court to vacate the stay on the implementation of Maratha quota law, the Dhangar community on Monday staged demonstration in Parbhani district of Marathwada region demanding their long-pending demand of to be included in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category be met immediately.
“While the community has staged rallies from time to time, the state government has not taken any concrete step on including us in the ST category. Despite presenting Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray with a list of our ten most important demands, no action has been forthcoming thus far,” alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLC Gopichand Padalkar, an influential Dhangar leader.
He said that Dhangar community youth are angry and warned of intensifying the agitation if the MVA government failed to respond quickly to the Dhangar community’s long-pending demands.
Another noted Dhangar leader Prakash Shendge, who heads the Maharashtra State Dhangar Welfare Association, said that all political parties have used the community as a football to suit their vote bank purposes.
The community is currently included in the Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT) category and is agitating for a higher quota by their inclusion in the ST list.
Dhangar leaders in Maharashtra contend that while the community called ‘Dhangad’ in other parts of the country are availing of the ST benefits, those in the State are being denied the same owing to a long-standing typographical error on the name.
Meanwhile, a bandh was observed in Solapur district today as activists of the ‘Sakal Maratha Samaj’ – an umbrella outfit of Maratha groups – staged protests across the district.
Tyres were burnt and traffic was blocked along the Pune-Pandharpur route and the Madha area, while the district administration suspended State Transport bus services as a precautionary measure.
Maratha activists staged sit-ins outside the houses of Congress MLA Praniti Shinde and BJP legislator and former Minister Subhash Deshmukh among other elected representatives.
“As always, I stand firmly behind the Maratha community and so does the Congress party. The MVA government will pull out all stops in ensuring that the community’s interests are strongly represented in the Supreme Court,” said Shinde, a three-time MLA from the Solapur City Central constituency.
Deshmukh, in a bid to pacify the restless crowd demanding his resignation, said he was even willing to step down as an MLA if the Maratha community members thought he had failed to address their issues.
