Mumbai Police grant permission to Jarange-Patil to hold agitation

Mumbai, Aug 27 (IANS) Mumbai Police on Wednesday gave permission to the pro-Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange-Patil to hold his agitation just for a day at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai against his call for an indefinite protest.

However, while giving its clearance, the Mumbai police have laid down a few conditions that he will have to follow.

Jarange-Patil, who has already left Antarwali Saraati village from Jalna district in Marathwada with a large number of supporters, is quite adamant on his indefinite agitation from August 29 to press demand for quota benefits for Marathas from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

The police have allowed Manoj Jarange-Patil to bring only five vehicles and to protest with only five thousand supporters, reiterating that he has been permitted to hold an agitation just for a day.

The police have said that they will not give permission on weekends or on government holidays.

Jarange-Patil and his supporters have been prohibited from taking out a morcha at the agitation venue. The timing for the agitation will be from 9 am to 6 pm, and they have been barred from cooking or throwing garbage. Besides, the activists have been told to strictly follow traffic rules, avoid inconvenience to the citizens and also avoid making statements that will hurt the religious sentiments, especially when the Ganeshotsav is underway.

According to the police, the elderly women, pregnant women and children should not be included in the agitation.

The consent by Mumbai police comes a day after the Bombay High Court barred Jarange-Patil from protesting at Azad Maidan without prior police permission under new rules.

The high court said that Jarange-Patil and his associates could move an application for permission to hold a protest in accordance with the newly promulgated rules. It also granted the state the liberty to offer the protestors an alternative place in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.

Reacting to the permission granted by the Mumbai police, Jarange-Patil told reporters, “I will follow all the rules of democracy and law. My community that comes with me will also follow all the rules. We are not stubborn. All the rules stated by the administration will be strictly followed. But we will not protest for just one day. We want to protest indefinitely. We have decided to continue our protest until our demands are accepted. I will follow all the remaining rules.”

He, however, added that if the permission has been given to hold a protest for a day, then the state government should also accept their demands in a day.

Jarange Patil further said, “I will not say much about the permission given to the protest right now. Because I do not know the exact terms and conditions that the police have put in place while giving permission. I will read the police order and only then react to it. However, I thank the government and the court for the permission given to hold the protest.”

Earlier, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday accepted one of the key demands of Jarange-Patil by extending the six-month deadline for the Shinde commission that was formed to find out the references to Maratha as Kunbi and vice versa in old documents during the period of the Nizam in Hyderabad and other places.

The cabinet committee headed by water resources minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil held a meeting on Tuesday, where they discussed the demands of Jarange-Patil, such as extending the six months to the Shinde commission, recognising Sage-Soyare relatives as part of the genealogy and one clan, while issuing a Kunbi certificate to them means extending OBC reservations benefits.

Vikhe-Patil said that the state government is very positive about Maratha reservation, but it should be given adequate time to carry out the proper and in-depth research.

He further stated that most of the records of Marathawada are placed in Hyderabad as the capital of the Nizam state, and they are written in the Urdu and Persian languages, so they need experts to read and authenticate them.

He urged Jarange-Patil to call off his agitation in Mumbai that is scheduled on August 29 because it can create law and order issues in the backdrop of the Ganesh festival.

--IANS

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