Marathas launch 'road-blocks' in Jalna, Solapur, other parts of Maha

Jalna (Maharashtra), Feb 24 (IANS) The Shivba Sanghatana chief Manoj Jarange-Patil intensified the ongoing agitation for Maratha quotas by staging road blocks in parts of Jalna, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Solapur and other parts of the state here on Saturday.

Scores of Marathas squatted on major roads, state or national highways including the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway, blocking traffic from 10.30 a.m. - 1 p.m., and later from 4-7 p.m., as per Jarange-Patil’s call.

While ensuring that students hurrying to write their HSC Board exams were not inconvenienced, the activists carried banners, posters and raised slogans against the state government demanding full Maratha quotas as promised, including formalisation of the January 26 draft on ‘Sage-Soyare’ (family bloodline).

Jarange-Patil had called upon his supporters to maintain peace, shun any violence and also make video recordings of the roadblocks agitation as evidence.

Tight police security has been deployed at the locations where the ‘rasta-roko’ agitations are taken up since morning, though no preventive detentions have been reported so far.