Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Aug 7 (PTI) Activist Manoj Jarange has said he will launch a fresh agitation on August 29 in Mumbai to press for his demand of reservation for the Maratha community.
Speaking
to reporters on Wednesday, Jarange said he along with other members of the Maratha community will leave from his Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district, located around 400 km from Mumbai, on August 27.
The activist has undertaken multiple hunger strikes demanding the recognition of all Marathas as Kunbis — an agrarian caste listed under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category — and reservation for the politically dominant community in government jobs and education.
He has consistently called for the implementation of historical records, including the Bombay, Satara, and Hyderabad gazettes, which he claims document the classification of the Maratha community as Kunbis.
“We will leave for Mumbai at 10 am on August 27 from Antarwali Sarati. We will make our first halt near Shivneri Fort in Junnar area of Pune district. We will go to Shivneri from Antarwali via Shevgaon, Ahilyanagar and Alephata and avoid the Malshej Ghat due to the monsoon,” Jarange said.
The next day, he will go to Chakan. From there, the agitators will head to south Mumbai via Talegaon, Lonawala, Vashi and Chembur, the activist said.
“The agitation will start on August 29 at the Azad Maidan in Mumbai,” he added.
Jarange has appealed to people from the Maratha community to join his agitation in Mumbai.
He has also said leaders from the Maratha community who do not participate in the agitation should be defeated in elections.
The Maharashtra legislature last year passed a bill providing 10 per cent reservation to the Maratha community under a separate category.
But Jarange has been insisting on the quota for the community under the OBC category.
The activist has claimed that more than 58 lakh documents have been collected to prove that Kunbis and Marathas are the same, and demanded the release of Kunbi certificates based on these records. PTI AW GK
