Activist Manoj Jarange Patil on Wednesday vowed to expose a conspiracy, allegedly hatched by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the BJP, to deny reservation to the Maratha community. On the other hand, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde urged the activist to turn his focus on Maha Vikas Aghadi which had “betrayed” the community.
His remarks came minutes after the Chief Minister said that instead of targeting the ruling Mahayuti alliance, Jarange Patil should ponder on the way the previous regime led by the Maha Vikas Aghadi betrayed the Maratha community.
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“On October 20, I will expose Devendra Fadnavis and the BJP. I will reveal the conspiracy that Fadnavis hatched to deny the Maratha community the benefit of reservation,” Jarange Patil said at a press conference held in Antarwali-Saraati village in Jalna district.
Although Jarange Patil lashed out at the ruling faction, he refrained from attacking Shinde. “The Chief Minister had promised to provide us the reservation. We had hopes on him. I told six crore Marathas that the Chief Minister will help us realise our dream of reservation. But Fadnavis did not let that happen,” he said.
Jarange Patil alleged that Fadnavis tried to destroy the lives of the Marathas by keeping them away from reservation. “Fadnavis made the game plan. He told the Centre how the party will benefit through the OBCs by denying reservation to the Marathas,” the activist said.
Jarange-Patil further said Fadnavis misused his powers to wreck the lives of the people of the Maratha community. “But now we will not keep silent. I will ensure Fadnavis and the BJP are exposed and make sure the party is ousted,” he said.
Jarange Patil said the state government failed to implement the “sage soyare notification. It failed to implement the Hyderabad gazette; it failed to withdraw cases against Maratha community youths. What benefit did we get from the Mahayuti government? We were insulted, our hopes were dashed and lives were destroyed”.
Jarange said a meeting of the Maratha community will be convened on October 20 to decide whether to fight the elections or to ensure the defeat of Mahayuti candidates. “From 9 am to 4 pm, I will hold interactions with members of the Maratha community. Those who can come should make it. We will take a decision whether to field our candidates or ensure the defeat of Mahayuti candidates,” he said.
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Reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement, Jarange Patil said, “Now I don’t want to talk about Maratha reservation. There is no use now talking about the Maratha quota issue. Maratha community knows everything…”
Taking a jibe at the government, Jarange said, “Maratha community knows how much it has benefitted by cases filed against our youngsters… Our youths are not getting non-creamy layer certificates. Thousands of our community’s youths who are facing cases are not getting jobs… Has this been done for our benefit? The ‘sage-soyare’ notification has not been implemented. Is this for our benefit?”
When he was asked about the challenge thrown by Jarange, the Chief Minister said, “I do what I say. We are going to give resevation to the Maratha community. We will ensure that OBC reservation is not affected while giving reservation to the Maratha community.”
Shinde said, “During the Dussehra rally, I touched the feet of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s statue and took an oath… After that I immediately called a session of the state legislature and gave the Maratha community 10 per cent reservation. But this issue went to court. Everyone knows who went to the court… Before this, Devendra Fadnavis when he was the chief minister, had given reservation to the Maratha community. However, the Maha Vikas Aghadi could not ensure that it is upheld in court. They failed to provide strong evidence in the Supreme Court.”
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“Jarange has taken to the streets to get justice for the Maratha community. But he should first ponder over the steps taken by the Mahayuti Government in the interest of Maratha community. He should see what all the government has done for Marathas. We gave funds to Sarathi, Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamanda… we help youths become entrepreneurs. Now the Maratha community is getting benefits like OBCs. Who did all this? Jarange should turn his focus on those who didn’t do anything for the Maratha community and denied various benefits… He should decide between those who helped the Maratha community and those who betrayed it,” the Chief Minister added.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
