Mumbai: AIDWA protests over demands related to food security

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat with members of All India Democratic Women`s Association (AIDWA) during a protest demanding distribution of ration under the PDS scheme. Pic/PTI

Hundreds of women gathered in the Azad Maidan area of south Mumbai on Tuesday to stage an agitation over various demands related to food security and rationing system, police said, according to the PTI.

CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat led the protest organised by the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), as per the PTI.

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Several police personnel had to be deployed to control the protesters who thronged the road near the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) headquarters and Azad Maidan, and to regularise vehicular traffic, an official told the PTI.

The AIDWA's office is in the Azad Maidan area and they had sought permission to state the agitation on the footpath there, but the police denied them permission and asked them to protest at Azad Maidan, which is a designated place, he said.

A delegation later met Maharashtra Food and Civil Supply Minister Chhagan Bhujbal at Mantralaya, the state secretariat, to put forth their demands related to food security and rationing system.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Sakal Maratha Samaj on Monday said black flags will be hoisted at homes of the community from September 15 as part of a peaceful agitation for reservations in jobs and education, according to the PTI.

The Sakal Maratha Samaj, an umbrella group of several outfits, submitted a memorandum at the office of the divisional commissioner here.

The memorandum said Maratha community was given the benefit of reservations during the rule of the Nizam in Marathwada but was dropped from the list after Maharashtra was formed in 1960.

Apart from hoisting black flags, the memorandum said community members would boycott celebrations organised by the government to mark Marathawada Liberation Day on September 17.

It also said agitations will be held in front of the homes of elected representatives from the community.

In an another protest on Monday, some activists of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh on Monday held a hunger strike in front of the collector's office complex in Chandrapur in Maharashtra to oppose the inclusion of the Maratha community in the OBC category for reservation purposes, reported the PTI.

The Maratha quota issue returned to centre stage when the police on September 1 baton-charged a violent mob at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district after protesters allegedly refused to let authorities shift Manoj Jarange, an activist on hunger strike over the quota issue, to a hospital.

Several persons, including 40 policemen, were injured and some 15 buses were set ablaze.

The Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh functionaries said the state government must carry out a "caste census".

(with PTI inputs)