Maratha quota stir: Only 2 days left, Manoj Jarange Patil reminds CM; government will keep its word, says Shiv Sena
After CM Eknath Shinde said that the Maratha community would get reservation in a month, Manoj Jarange Patil had called off his hunger strike. This deadline, extended by 10 days, ends on October 24.
Jarange Patil said that though the Maratha Reservation Committee has sought two more months, they would not extend the deadline. (PTI Photo)
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Manoj Jarange Patil, the Jalna-based activistat the forefront of the Maratha community’s agitation for reservation in Maharashtra, reminded Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Sunday that only two days were left for him to keep his word on the issue, prompting the Shinde Sena to say that the state government was committed to ensuring reservation for the community, “but one that will stand the scrutiny of the law”.
Jarange Patil, who is visiting different parts of the state and addressing rallies ahead of the October 24 deadline he gave the government to provide reservation to the Maratha community, reminded Shinde on Sunday that the 40-day deadline would end on October 24. “We hope on October 24, the Maratha community will get reservation. The chief minister had given us his word that his government would grant us reservation. We had initially given a month’s time and then extended the deadline by 10 days. Now, October 24 is the deadline. We are hoping that the CM will honour his word and not ignore and humiliate us,” Jarange Patil said while interacting with reporters.
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Jarange Patil said that though the Maratha Reservation Committee has sought two more months, they would not extend the deadline. “Instead of three days, we gave him [Shinde] 40 days. And by doing so, we showed our respect to him. I am sure the chief minister will not betray the Maratha community,” he added.
When asked about the deadline set by Jarange Patil, Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said, “The state government is committed to ensuring reservation for the Maratha community. The government is doing everything to help the community get reservation. But we want to ensure that the reservation stands the scrutiny of the Supreme Court. Earlier too, the state governments had given reservation but they were quashed by the Supreme Court. This time, we will ensure a fool-proof reservation which will be upheld in the apex court.”
Jarange Patil shot to fame after he held a fast at Antarwali-Sarati village in Jalna district from August end. After the police lathi-charged the villagers, Jarange Patil demanded the resignation of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the state home minister. Top leaders from the Opposition as well as the government rushed to the village to persuade him to call off his hunger strike. After CM Shinde met him, Jarange Patil withdrew his hunger strike but not before extracting a promise that reservation would be provided to the Maratha community in a month.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
