For the past six days, representatives of the Dhangar community have been on an indefinite hunger strike at Tilak Smarak in Pandharpur, demanding inclusion in the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category. To address this issue, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has called a meeting today (September 15) at 2 PM at the Sahyadri Guest House.
On Saturday (September 14), a government delegation met with the protesters. Chief Minister Shinde has scheduled today’s meeting at Sahyadri Guest House to work towards a satisfactory resolution, as confirmed by the delegation. The delegation, including Minister Chandrakant Patil and Minister Shambhuraj Desai, has already engaged with the protesters.
For today’s meeting, Dhangar community representatives such as Adv. Subhash Gofane, Anil Zore, Subhash Maske, Biru Kolhekar, Pankaj Devkate, Prashant Ghodeke, Aditya Phattepurkar, and Vitthal Patil have traveled to Mumbai. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Chandrakant Patil, Shambhuraje Desai, Atul Save, and Vijay Gavith will also be present.
The meeting is organized by the Department of Other Backward Classes Welfare. Despite it being a Sunday, the Chief Minister has ordered this meeting to be held urgently due to the severity of the protest. The primary demand is to include the Dhangar community in the ST category, a request that involves several legal complexities; hence, legal experts have also been invited to the meeting.
Six individuals from the Maratha community — Deepak Borate, Yogesh Dharam, Vijay Tamnar, Mauli Harnawal, Ganesh Keskar, and Yashwant Gayke have started an indefinite hunger strike in Pandharpur from September 9. They are pressing for their decades of demand to give them reservation under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.
At present, the community is part of the Nomadic Tribes (NT) category under which they are getting reservation benefits in government jobs and education up to 3.5%. Inclusion in the ST category will increase their reservation quota to 7%.