CM Fadnavis to meet Maratha leaders soon, says Chandrakant Patil

Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will hold talks with the Sakal Maratha Samaj soon, revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said on Friday. At the meeting held recently, Maratha organisations decided to hold talks with the state government. Mr Patil welcomed the decision and said that a meeting would be held soon between representatives of the Maratha community and the chief minister. In October and November 2016, Maratha community organised massive marches, which created a storm in the state. The Maratha community had carried out statewide protests, demanding reservations in government jobs and education.

The agitators had stuck to stand, saying that they won’t hold talks with the state government. The Maratha community would handover the charter of demands to every district collector but had refused to meet the state government officials.

But, after the Golmej meeting of Maratha community representatives in Kolhapur, they changed their stand and decided to hold talks with the state government to hammer out a solution. Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil has welcomed Samaj’s decision to meet the chief minister.

On Friday, Mr Patil said that he would talk to chief minister Fadnavis regarding holding talks with the Maratha community representative. “The state has set up various schemes for Maratha community. The state has cleared its stand on the reservations,” said Mr Patil.