Nagpur: The ruling party in the state, which also runs Nagpur Municipal Corporation is finding it too hard to cope up with the ongoing Marathi stir coupled with the agitation to save religious structures by the party leaders itself.
At a time when Marathas have bulged up their statewide agitation to press for its quota demand, back in Nagpur, the ruling party leaders have jumped up to protect the religious structures from NMC’s drive against encroachment. The situation has left the state government as well as NMC ruling party in great dilemma.
Mess over Maratha quota
The Maratha agitation gained momentum last year when silent march were taken out in West Maharashtra and Marathwada. Around the same time the farmers also resorted to agitation forcing the state government to announce loan waiver. Now sensing the approaching elections, Marathas, Dhangars, Lingayat and Muslim community are being prompted to revive their quota stir yet again. As the Maratha agitation did not meet any fruitful end during the recently concluded monsoon session of state legislature in Nagpur, the stir got fierce leading to the death of few people. Later it took new turn when MLAs started tendering resignations one after another.
Interestingly not a single Maratha representative in either state assemly or Lok Sabha put in the papers to strengthen the stir. This has prompted the state government to call a special assembly session to sort out the issue. Insiders believe that as of now, nothing is in the hands of the government which could hardly make any decision on giving reservation to Maratha or any other community until it fulfills the instructions given by the court.
In the name of religion…
Even as the state government was struggling to reign in Maratha stir, Nagpur Municipal Corporation, also ruled by BJP, is caught in dicy situation as its own party leaders have now come out against its drive to demolish religious structures on footpaths and other encroached areas. In 2014, NMC had submitted the list of 1300 such illegal religious structures to the Nagpur bench of Mumbai High Court. Following the court’s order, NMC and NIT has recently launched the demolition drive. Of the said list, as many as 180 structures have been removed till date.
Despite the protest from low profile party workers and few other organisation, the ruling party leaders chose to keep mum then. However when NMC and NIT officials moved to their areas, they vehemently opposed the officials and obstructed their work, thereby contempting the court’s order. The BJP leaders in NMC even announced a special meeting of NMC on August 3.
It is learnt that the NMC Commissioner had not signed the proposal till the time of filing the report. On the contrary, as per rules the members should be officially intimated 72 hours before any special meeting. Under such circumstances, chances are less that the meeting may happen. Sources believe that even if NMC chief signs the proposal, it would also be termed as contempt of court.
On the other hand, when few Bajrang Dal workers were planning to hold ‘maha aarti’ near the concerned judge’s residence, the police returned them after explaining the legal repercussions of their agitation.
Meanwhile, the citizens have expressed ire over the NMC and NIT’s biased and politically influenced act of protecting the selected religious structures.
