Mumbai: Thousands of people belonging to the Maratha community from different parts of Maharashtra converged here today as part of their campaign to press for reservation in jobs and education among other demands.

Amid tight security, the massive silent march began from the Jijamata Udyan in Byculla this morning with participants carrying saffron swallowtail flags.

People had started arriving in the city since early morning in private vehicles as well as public modes of transport. Police and traffic personnel were deployed in large numbers to manage the huge inflow of people and the movement of vehicles in Mumbai.

The Mumbai’s famed ‘Dabbawalas’ (lunchbox delivery men), majority of whom hail from the Maratha community, also joined the march.

This is the 58th march of the Maratha community, exactly a year after the first such protest held in Aurangabad. The march has been organised by the Sakal Maratha Samaj, an umbrella organisation of several Maratha groups.

These ‘mook morcha’ or silent rallies were held in various parts of the state following the brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl, belonging to the Maratha community, at Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district in July 2016.

The JJ flyover was closed for traffic in view of the march, police said. Schools in south Mumbai were closed today as a precautionary measure, an official said.

At Azad Maidan, where the Maratha morcha will culminate later today, the campaigners raised slogans as Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar reached the venue.

Some of the campaigners said that they don’t want politicians to interfere.

Shelar rubbished reports that he was stopped and manhandled at Azad Maidan.

In Maharashtra Legislature, where the monsoon session is underway, Shiv Sena MLAs joined legislators across parties in shouting slogans demanding reservation for Marathas.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter have been used to rally the community members, the organisers said.

The silent protest is a peaceful way to press the demands for reservation in jobs and educational institutions and punishment for culprits in the Kopardi case, they said.

Their other demands include amendments in SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) to stop its misuse, loan waiver to curb farmer suicides and remunerative prices for agricultural produce.

A police official said over five lakh people are expected to participate in the morcha.

No toll will be collected today from vehicles coming into Mumbai in order to avoid delays at collection points, considering the large number of vehicles entering the city.

In the state legislature, Shiv Sena members, led by Eknath Shinde, supported the demands of the Maratha community.

The party MLAs raised slogans on the steps of the Vidhan Bhavan.

Shinde said, “We completely support the demands of the Maratha community. A large section of the community is deprived of education, good income sources and skills that would get them good jobs. Reservation in education and jobs could be one way of supporting them.”

“The other demands, such as strict action against those who had allegedly sexually assaulted the girl and murdered her, will be given the required support,” he said.

(Agencies)

Gandhinagar: Ahmed Patel on Wednesday dealt a severe blow to the BJP when he won the Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat in a cliffhanger contest in which the top BJP leadership staked its all by backing a Congress defector.

Patel got 44 votes that was just enough to beat his rival Congress defector Balwantsinh Rajput and earn a fifth term in Rajya Sabha while Shah and Irani got 46 and 45 votes respectively in the counting that was delayed by over nine hours because of the Congress challenge in the Election Commission first and the BJP’s objections before the returning officer past midnight.

Celebrations broke out in the Congress camp with workers setting off firecrackes and distributing sweets as Patel reacted saying “truth alone triumphs”.

“This is not just my victory. It is a defeat of the most blatant use of money power, muscle power and abuse of state machinery,” he tweeted.

Patel thanked his party MLAs, workers and the leadership for the victory and said under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, the Congress will get strength and win Gujarat assembly election.

In a jibe at the BJP top leadership, Patel prayed to God that everybody be given good sense.

Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, who was part of a Congress delegation that met the Election Commission on Tuesday seeking rejection of votes of two Congress rebels said: “Money, muscle and manipulation could not win in the Guarat Rajya Sabha elections.”

“BJP can break a few weak Congress MLAs but BJP cannot break the Congress party,” he said in his reaction.

The victory that came as a major boost to Congress has been battered in many elections in the last three years and did not come easily given the fact that the whole of Tuesday was marked by high drama and allegations, counter-allegations and high-pitched legal battle in the Commission over votes of two rebel Congress MLAs.

The first setback for the BJP came after the poll panel upheld the Congress complaint seeking rejection of the two votes by Bhola Bhai Gohil and Raghavji Bhai Patel, both loyalists of Shankarsinh Vaghela, who had shown their ballots to Shah and Irani against Conduct of Election Rules.

The Commission rejected the arguments of a high-powered BJP delegation led by Arun Jaitley that the Commission had no power to intervene in the matter as retunring officer is the statutory authority to decide the validity or otherwise of ballot paper.

This was countered by the Congress delegation that asserted the Commission was the only authority to decide on the issue in keeping with the precedents set by it in Haryana last year and in Rajasthan in 2000.

In the Gujarat assembly with an effective strength of 176 MLAs, the numbers were enough for a comfortable victory for two BJP candidates and one of Congress.

But the BJP made it a prestige fight in Gujarat from where both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah hail in an apparent attempt to inflict another crushing blow on the Congress in the assembly elections scheduled later this year.

The battle became bitter between the powerful BJP ruling both at the Centre and in Gujarat and the political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi when defections were engineered from the Congress first by friend-turned-foe-turned ally Shankarsinh Vaghela and six other MLAs who resigned from the Congress.

From 57, the Congress strength came down to 51 when Vaghela quit the party while six of his loyalists quit the assembly. The strength further came down when six of the MLAs defected to the BJP reducing his backing to 45. The Congress had to shepherd 44 MLAs to Bengaluru to counter poaching by the BJP.

On the day of reckoning, Ahmed Patel had 44 in his bag along with the backing of one NCP and one JD-U MLA though there was day-long speculation on how the two allies voted.

(IANS)

Bengaluru: Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to utilize plastic waste to tar the roads in Bengaluru city in an attempt to produce quality roads and reduce the quantity of plastic waste in the city.

As per the proposed plan, BBMP has decided to mix plastic waste with tar to use the mixture for road tarring. To fulfill the requirement of plastic waste, a private waste management company has signed a contract to supply plastic waste to BBMP.

BBMP has also decided to start a network of private individuals, street plastic waste collectors to obtain plastic waste. BBMP has decided to buy such plastic waste at Rs 6 to Rs 8 per kilogram, sources said.

(Agencies)

Chandigah: Chandigarh Police has retrieved footage of five CCTV cameras on the route on which a 29-year- old woman was allegedly chased by two men including son of a Haryana BJP leader last week.

The woman, daughter of a bureaucrat, had called up the police on Friday night complaining that two youth were chasing her along a stretch of over five km here.

Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas (23) and Ashish Kumar (27) were earlier arrested for allegedly stalking the woman. However, both were released later on bail as they were booked under bailable sections of the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act.

“Chandigarh Police has retrieved footage of 5 CCTV cameras on the route capturing the chase of the victim’s vehicle by the alleged vehicle,” a Chandigarh Police official said here today.

Yesterday, UT Chandigarh SSP Eish Singhal had said the police was in the process of taking the footage of CCTV on the route where the victim was allegedly stalked by the accused.

“We have identified several CCTV cameras on the route taken by the accused and we are in the process of taking footage when their technical analysis is complete, we will let you know,” he had said.

On allegations that six CCTV cameras on the route were non-functional, the SSP had said, “I can brief about this only when the technical analysis is complete.”

“We are analysing every single camera on that road stretch. When technical analysis is complete, details will be put before you.”

Police had rejected claims that it was under any kind of pressure.

The Chandigarh Police had also said it will not hesitate to add non-bailable provisions in the case if legal opinion is in its favour.

Singhal had said they were investigating the matter with an “open mind” and were taking legal opinion on several issues pertaining to the case.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had yesterday condemned the alleged incident and said no attempt should be made to dilute charges against the accused.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Opposition Congress, supported by TMC and JD(U), today forced four adjournments of the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over what it called as “biggest scam of this century” in the printing of two different kinds of 500 and 1000 rupee notes.

Slogan-shouting Congress members trooped into the well even as Leader of the House and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the opposition party has been raising “frivolous” issues without giving notices to stall Zero Hour proceedings.

They were supported by Sharad Yadav (JD-U) who displayed copies of some currency notes. Some members including Derek O’Brien (TMC) displayed the new 500 rupee notes issued after demonetisation to show the different sizes they were bring printed.

He first offered to submit the notes to Jaitley for scrutiny and then walked up to him to explain to him the difference. He, however, did not leave the notes with the Finance Minister.

Jaitley said there is no provision in the rules that anyone could “flash any paper and say it is point of order.” “There is a misuse of zero hour which is going on,” he said, adding that the Congress first raised the issue of provision for None-Of-The-Above (NOTA) in the ballot for Rajya Sabha poll but then discovered that the provision had been made during their rule.

“You have been raising frivolous issues in the Zero Hour without giving notice” with a view to disrupt and not get replies, he said, but did not reply to the opposition contentions on different sized notes.

Raising the issue through a point of order, Kapil Sibal (Cong) said different sizes of the new high denomination currency was being printed – “one for the ruling party (members) and one for the others”.

“We have today discovered the reason why the government did demonetisation (of old 500 and 1000 rupee notes in November last year),” he said. Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad (Cong) said “this is the biggest scam of this century.”

As Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi countered, Azad said two types of notes are being printed.

“The government has no right to remain in office for even five minutes,” he said. Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said even if there are two types of notes, it cannot be a point of order. “You raise the issue in a different form.”

“It is a serious issue,” O’Brien said as he displayed two 500 rupee notes that he said were different in size and design. Prasad asked opposition members to explain where they got the currency notes from.

Sharad Yadav (JD-U) said no country in the world has two notes of different sizes. “One is bigger, one is smaller,” he said. “I can give signed (copies of the notes).”

Kurien said he is not an expert to examine the notes. “You give separate notice.” “I will give them to Finance Minister,” O’Brien said. Kurien said “give it to the Finance Minister, I have no objection.”

Anand Sharma (Cong) said the credibility of the currency in circulation has been challenged. Kurien, however, said the issue cannot be taken up through a point of order and the members have to give separate notice.

Pramod Tiwari (Cong) said notice has been given, to which Kurien said the Chairman will examine them. As the din continued, Kurien adjourned the proceedings for 15 minutes.

After the adjournment, as Kurien asked the members again to give notice on the issue, O’Brien said he has given notice for discussion on demonetisation for the past three weeks, but the government has not yet listed the matter.

As the din continued, Kurien adjourned the House till noon. Similar noisy scenes were witnessed when the Question Hour was taken up by Chairman Hamid Ansari, who adjourned the proceedings for another 15 minutes.

When the House assembled again, the opposition members continued slogan-shouting, forcing Ansari to adjourn the House till one PM.

(PTI)