The police have issued notices to several persons who initiated a chain hunger strike in Kalyan, Thane district. This hunger strike is aimed at advocating for job and education reservations for the Maratha community. The participants include workers of the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena, he said.
Shiv Sena Kalyan district president Arvind More said it was unfortunate police was serving notices at a time when a Maratha was the state’s chief minister. If this was the case, then we don’t need such a chief minister, More said.
Maratha Activist Manoj Jarange, whose indefinite fast over the Maratha quota issue entered the third day on Friday, said the Maharashtra government can convene a special one-day session of the state legislature to grant reservation to the community. Jarange had observed a hunger strike in the Antarwali Sarati village in September demanding that the Maratha community be granted reservation in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The protest, which began on August 29, was called off on September 14 after CM Shinde held talks with him. At that time, the activist had set a 40-day deadline (October 24) before the government for the grant of quota.