Poor show at Maratha silent march in Chandrapur

Chandrapur: Marathas in allegiance with the dominant Kunbi community in district staged a silent but powerful protest march (Kranti Muk Morcha) here on Wednesday. Thousands of people walked in organized manner through the city to press their demands.
The agitation continued for over five hours and voiced various demands including punishment for culprits in Kopardi rape and murder case, reservation in education and government jobs, amendment in atrocity law, loan waiver and pension scheme for farmers, appropriate support price to crops etc.Men and women, students, working professionals, political leaders walked in silence, sporting white Gandhian cap and holding saffron flags, from MHADA colony through the main roads in city to reach Chanda Club ground .
However the raging figure of lakhs of people turning out for the silent rally dipped considerably this time. While organizers estimated the participant figure to be in tune with 1.5 to 2 lakh, police department put the figure around 40,000 to 50,000. Some politicos from the community blamed the 9km long route for comparatively poor show. The organizers had earlier claimed that at least 5 lakh people will gather for the silent march. The high turnout in the Maratha rallies in other districts forced the administration to insist on organizers taking out rally from MHADA colony at the outskirt of the city where ample open space is available for parking of vehicles.
The 9km long route took toll on the rally. Many opted to wait at some square in the city for arrival of the rally and joined there, instead of going to the starting point at MHADA colony. Several people, particularly elderly ones, were rescued through ambulances, as they felt delirious walking the long circuit in hot and humid weather. Several participants were also seen walking away from the silent march midway as rally entered in main roads of city. Police department deployed force of 1,800 cops, 2 SRPF and RCP platoons for security and crowd control. Organizers too arranged 2,000 volunteers to manage the rally.
The march brought the day-to-day chores to stand still for almost five hours. All the schools and colleges in the city, except those at outskirts, had declared holiday to prevent the students getting struck in large crowd. Following police department’s orders of restriction on all kind of vehicular movement (except emergency vehicles), there was no major traffic hassles within the city limit. However it caused several kilometre long jam on Nagpur-Chandrapur, Bramhapuri-Chandrapur and Rajura-Chandrapur highways as all the heavy and transport vehicles were blocked at the outskirt of the city for entire day. Cops also blocked entire traffic on the main-roads in city soon after rally due to which commuters were stuck with their vehicles for hours. Citizens were also seen engaged in tantrums with cops to allow them to cross the main road to go to their destination.
The protest began with the customary ode to Jijamata at MHADA colony. As the rally reached Priyadarshini square, five girls accompanied by volunteers went to district collectorate and submitted memorandum of demands to district collector Ashutosh Salil. These girls later addressed a rally at Chanda club ground. Various organizations of Muslim, Shindi, Lohar and OBC community had expressed their solidarity with the Maratha-Kunbi protest. These organization had also arranged for water and refreshments for rally along the route. Shiv Sena MLA, Balu Dhonoarkar, BJP MLA Subhash Dhote, BJPs former MLA Atul Deshkar, Congress ex-MLAs Subhash Dhote, NCP leaders Rajendra Vaidya, Babasaheb Wasade, Sena leader and Bhadrawatis municipal chief, Anil Dhanorkar, Congress leader Rajni Hajare along with several other politicians took part in the rally.