Maratha reservation fuels noisy scenes, 3 adjournments

Nagpur: The Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Thursday witnessed disruptions due to noisy scenes and three adjournments over Opposition protests demanding reservations for the Maratha community.

Opposition leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil raised the issue in the house demanding reservation in employment for Maratha youth, which was supported by group leader Ajit Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The entire opposition benches joined them in raising the issue and the house was adjourned twice for 10 minutes and later for 15 minutes as there was no improvement in the situation.

It began when Mr Vikhe-Patil criticised the government for the delay in giving reservations to the Marathas. Accusing it of losing its credibility, he said that even  the high court had reprimanded the state government. He said Maratha community members are resorting to protests in Parli and have threatened to block the chief minister’s visit to Pandharpur next week.

Mr Pawar joined the issue with Mr Vikhe Patil and said the Maratha community has so far taken out 57 rallies from various parts of state to draw the attention of the government. .

Mr Ashish Shelar from the BJP ridiculed the Opposition saying the BJP government was keen to give reservation but accused the Congress-led government of the previous regime for not initiating efforts to implement it.