MUMBAI: Maratha community that had been agitating for reservation and other demands has warned the Maharashtra government of restarting fierce agitation from February 19, the birth anniversary of King Shivaji, if the demands put forth by the community are not met.
A grand day-long meeting of Maratha community leaders from all districts of the state was held at Panvel in the Raigad district on Monday. The leaders gave information of decisions arrived at the meeting on Tuesday.
Though the leaders expressed satisfaction over the lower court’s decision sentencing all the three accused in Kopardi case to death, which was one of the demands raised during 58 mega rallies organised by the community over past year, they expressed dissatisfaction over laxity in implementation of other promises made by the government. The government failed to implement assurances they said while referring to the resolution that had been reached after a series of protests across the state culminated in a massive silent march on August 9.
Maratha community leaders warned the state government that the community would take out a huge rally at the state assembly during the forthcoming budget session in the month of February and won’t let the house to carry out its business. Drawing inspiration from the Patidar agitation in Gujarat, the community will resort to similar methods of agitation to showcase its strength in time to come ahead of the 2019 Maharashtra state election, the leaders said.
The agitation would be named ‘19 se 2019 tak’ – from Shivaji’s birth anniversary to the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2019.
Apart from the reservation in education and government jobs, the community had put forth demands regarding scholarships for the students in the community, hostels for them in every district, higher education institute and research institute etc. One of the new demands included in the list was to restart around 1300 Marathi schools shut down by the education department.