Maratha ‘warm-up’ rally on bikes stirs lazy Sunday

The traffic department said certain Hindmata at Parel and Byculla junction experienced gridlocks because of the bike rally. (Photo: Rajesh Jadhav)

The Sunday’s “warm-up” Maratha bike rally, meant to be a precursor to a bigger one in the city, managed to hold up city traffic despite it being a Sunday. The traffic department said certain roads in Mumbai experienced gridlocks because of the bike rally.

Traffic police spokesperson S. Koregaokar said, “There was traffic near Hindmata and Byculla junction for half an hour.”

The Maratha community began to hold protest rallies from Aurangabad on August 9 and since then, more than 30 rallies have been organised across the state except Mumbai.

According to a youth leader, the community is split in Mumbai over the date of protest. “Earlier, it was decided to organise it before Diwali, but another group wanted it organised after Diwali and before the Winter Session of the state legislature scheduled from December 5 in Nagpur,” said the source.

Their major demands are to dilute The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, reservation for the community in government jobs and death penalty to the Kopardi gang rape accused.

Meanwhile, Rajan Ghag, one of the organisers of the event, claimed that more than 50,000 bikes participated in the rally, which commenced from KJ Somaiya ground in Sion at 10 am and culminated near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus station after passing through Matunga, Dadar, Parel, Lalbaug and Byculla areas.

“A maha morcha will be held in Mumbai if the state government fails to agree to our demands in which people from the farthest of districts will participate,” Mr Ghag said.

“In today’s Janjagruti rally, we had formulated a code of conduct for each participant, who had to follow them strictly. Among the rules set were that every rider should wear a helmet and the pillion rider had to wear a turban. Also, every person was instructed to strictly refrain from honking and not break signals,” he said.

Traffic on the Eastern Freeway was disrupted during the march of motorbikes.