MUMBAI: Marathas who have intensified their agitation for quota in education and jobs over past few days started with 'Jail Bharo' agitation at several places across the state on Wednesday.
While they staged protests at residences of MP, MLAs and ministers at some places, they continued with blocking highways and protests at government offices at most other places even as the state government on Thursday evening announced several sops for the youth from the community.
"We have lost confidence in the government led by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis due to his hollow assurances of offering reservation to Maratha community, which is why we are protesting here and staging arrest," said Kedar Suryavanshi who led protestests here at Azad Maidan.
The protestors have been demanding withdrawal of false cases against Maratha community members involved in violence and vandalism during the protests, action against the police officials who resorted to lathi-charge. They are also demanding Rs 50 lakh of compensation to kin of all the community members who have lost lives till now in the agitation and Rs 10 lakh to those who got injured during the agitation. They also want Fadnavis and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil to apologize to the community for demeaning it.
Our agitation would continue for these demands, Survanshi said, while coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha Vinod Pokharkar said that the 'Jail Bharo' agitation would continue till August 9. If the government doesn't make a formal announcement regarding quota by then, the next step would be agitation at the state secretariat.
A state-wide meeting of coordinators has been called on August 9 wherein the direction of the agitation after that would be decided, Pokharkar added. While the protestors assured that the protests would be peaceful, some of them burnt tyres to block highway at Nanded. The roads and highways were blocked at several other places. Prominent among them were Aurangabad, Malegaon in Nashik and Solapur.
In Latur, the protestors demonstrated in front of guardian minister Sambhaji Nilangekar's residence. In Nashik, the protestors pledged for peaceful demonstrations and said that the onus would be on the government if the protests turn violent. In Junnar of Ahmednagar district protestors appealed people to observe shut down and protested by climbing the water tank near city. In Ambajogai of Beed district 25 agitators courted arrest for quota.
In Mumbai too the numbers were not more than that. Police detained such protestors for some time and then let them go. Meanwhile, Fadnavis has called a meeting of party MLAs to get feedback on Maratha agitation on Thursday. The meeting would be held at around 2 pm, CMO sources said.
At a meeting of cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota held on Tuesday evening at state guest house here, the state government decided to stand guarantor for loans to be disbursed to youth from the Maratha community under a scheme to extend financial assistance to backward communities. It also decided that the M.Phil and Ph.D research students from the community would be given fellowships by the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaja Research, Training and Human Development Institute (SARTHI), set up by the government in Pune.
Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil who heads the committee said that the government has decided to pay half of the fees of students including Marathas, whose family income is less than Rs 8 lakh per anum, for 608 professional courses. While around 12,000 applications for the loan have been received by the government, over 2.5 lakh students across the state have been benefitted out of the 50 per cent fee waiver scheme in the last one year, he added.