Ex-BJP MLA's 48-hour fast ends in 20 minutes

Rajkot: Former BJP MLA Siddharth Parmar, who is protesting against the Indian Premier League's (IPL) matches being played despite a drought-like situation in Rajkot, on Thursday sat outside the Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA) gate but failed to get any support.
Parmar, who heads Rashtriya Dalit MahaSangh, had planned a 48-hour fast alleging that SCA was wasting precious water over cricket when villages were facing acute water shortage.However, his protest wound up within 20 minutes after police threatened to arrest him.
He had sought permission to stage a sit-in protest at Trikon Baugh, but the permission was denied by the authorities. So, on Thursday, he went and sat outside the SCA stadium at Khandheri with three other supporters. SCA secretary Niranjan Shah tried to placate Parmar and asked him to end his fast. But when he did not relent, police was called. They asked him to leave the spot or face arrest for trespassing.
Parmar and his three supporters ended the fast and left the spot. Earlier, the former BJP MLA has demanded that SCA should adopt the villages near Khandheri that are facing water crisis and if they are unable to do so, release funds and let an independent agency work on supplying water there. SCA had termed his demand as infeasible and turned it down.