Eknath Shinde Appeals Maratha Community For Peace After Jalna Violence

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said that the state government was committed to provide reservation to the Maratha community and appealed to citizens to maintain peace.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on the Jalna incident said, "In November 2014, when the coalition government was in power under the leadership of then Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the government announced the Maratha reservation. The High Court also upheld the Maratha Reservation decision taken by the government. But the Supreme Court took a different decision. Everyone knows that this is due to someone's negligence...The issue of the Maratha Reservation is currently in the court. The state government is fully prepared to fight this case in court...There are some difficulties, and the state government is trying to resolve them."

The Chief Minister has appealed to people to be careful from those who wanted to take political mileage of the situation.

He said, "I appeal to the Maratha community, who have so far expressed their feelings very sensibly and calmly, with folded hands, to exercise restraint and not take the law into their hands."

The incident of the lathi-charge during the agitation in Jalna district is very unfortunate, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said, "I had a conversation with the leader of this movement, Jarange Patil. Meetings were also held under my chairmanship regarding their demands. Action was being taken by the government on their demands. However, the movement started even after that. I had requested Jarange Patil to withdraw the agitation but the protest still continued."

However, during protest time, the condition of Jarange Patil deteriorated, Collector and SP went there because they were worried about his condition, the Chief Minister added.

"They were requesting that Jarange Patil should be admitted to the hospital. However, this unfortunate incident happened at that time. I have also ordered a high-level inquiry into the incident. Also, I have given instructions to treat all the injured in this incident at the government's expense," the Chief Minister said.

Earlier on Friday, a clash broke out between Police and protesters demanding reservation for the Marathas in Jalna. Police resorted to lathi charges to disperse the protesters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)