Maratha quota stir: Mumbai Police arrives to vacate Azad Maidan following High Court's directives

Activist Manoj Jarange Patil during his hunger strike demanding Maratha reservation, at Azad Maidan, in Mumbai on Saturday. (Image: PTI)

The Mumbai police on Tuesday arrives to vacate south Mumbai'sAzad Maidan where Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange has been staging a hunger strike seeking reservation for Maratha community from August 29.

Mumbai Police personnel has arrived at Azad Maidan to vacate the area following the Bombay High Court (HC) directives to stop the Maratha agitation.

DCP Zone 1, Pravin Munde and other police officials arrive at Azad Maidan to vacate the area.

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday slammed Jarange for continuing to sit on "fast unto death" at Mumbai's Azad Maidan seeking reservation for the Maratha Community, questioning him over steps taken to control crowd after finding that 1 Lakh people had reached the city.

A division bench bench of Acting Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Aarti Sathe asked Jarange and all protesters to vacate the site before "3 pm today", else necessary action including imposing exemplary costs, contempt of court proceedings etc would be initiated.

Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil is on a hunger strike, and his supporters are present as well.

The Maharashtra government has finalised a draft regarding demands raised by Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange, state minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Tuesday said and expressed hope it would yield positive results.

Vikhe Patil, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota, said he along with panel members Shivendrasinh Bhosale and Jaykumar Gore will meet Jarange on Tuesday and discuss the draft.

The draft has been prepared and approved by the committee after checking that it is within the legal framework, the minister told reporters, adding that they will discuss it with Jarange.

The activist has been staging a hunger strike at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai from August 29, seeking a 10 per cent quota for the Maratha community in government jobs and education under the OBC grouping.

Earlier in the morning, Mumbai Police issued notice and denied permission to continue the Maratha agitation and ordered the protestors to vacate Azad Maidan premises, citing violation of the terms and conditions laid out by the Bombay High Court and police to hold the protest.

After Mumbai Police denied permission to continue the agitation, Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil, who has been on a hunger strike for the last 5 days, said that even if he dies, he will not leave the protest site Azad Maidan.

As the state government has been directed to take steps to further stop the protestors from entering Mumbai in future, the Maratha activist warned the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, stating, "My request to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is that you will not be able to withstand the public outcry that is coming on Monday. Even if I die, I will not rise from this free ground. Even if I die, you keep silent."

Jarange Patil warned that it will be "costly" for the government to evict the protestors from Azad Maidan. He further expressed hope for justice.

He said, "We believe in the God of Justice... We are 100 percent confident that justice will be served. There is no traffic anywhere in Mumbai right now. Our kids have parked their cars in all the parking lots. It will be costly for the government to evict us from Azad Maidan. For the last two years we have been protesting peacefully. Our protest is going on within the law. We hope that the court will give justice in favor of the protest. As soon as the court order came, we have removed the vehicles. Now there is no traffic jam anywhere in Mumbai. We will get 100 percent justice. We are protesting in a democratic way."

Patil asserted that the protestors will not leave Mumbai until their demands are met.

"We will not leave Mumbai unless the demands are implemented. The divine justice has given us justice so far and will give us justice now too. We will not leave Mumbai unless the Hyderabad Gazette is implemented. We are peacefully sitting on a hunger strike. We said at night, remove the cars from the road and put them in the field, after which our boys removed all the cars within four to five hours, what more can be done than this. We are the guardians of the law and the divine justice," the Maratha activist stated.

Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil's hunger strike at Azad Maidan entered its fifth day. A large number of his followers were present at the protest site. Authorities have asked Patil's core committee to vacate Azad Maidan as soon as possible. This comes after the Bombay High Court on Monday issued directives asking protesters to vacate all streets in Mumbai by Tuesday noon.

On Monday, Bombay High Court, in an urgent hearing on the ongoing agitation in Mumbai, said that they had given permission for the protest with certain conditions, which have been violated by the protesters. The protesters have brought the city to a standstill, and they have not followed their undertaking given to the court.

Mumbai's Azad Maidan has been witnessing thousands of people from the Maratha community protesting to press their demands for 10 per cent OBC reservation in government jobs and colleges.

The Marathas have been calling for a reservation demand for years. However, the protests intensified after Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil went on a hunger strike recently and vowed not to drink water until his demands were met.

With inputs from agencies