Maratha quota stir intensifies: Mumbai-Bengaluru highway blocked, trains halted in Solapur

A group of protestors demanding reservations for the Maratha community in Maharashtra blocked the Mumbai-Bengaluru Highway for two hours on Tuesday afternoon, causing a massive traffic jam. The protestors also burned tyres on the Pune-Bengaluru highway near Navale bridge in Maharashtra's Pune city, affecting the movement of vehicles near the site of the protest.

The Maratha community has been staging protests seeking reservations in government jobs and education under the OBC category. The agitation intensified after Maratha quota activist Manoj  Jarange launched an indefinite fast on October 25 as part of the second phase of the stir.

On Monday, protests turned violent in some parts of the state as quota protesters torched, vandalised the homes or offices of three MLAs, targeted a municipal council building, and disrupted road traffic in Maharashtra. The homes of two NCP MLAs were set ablaze, while the office of another legislator from the BJP was vandalised. The incidents of violence and arson were reported from central Maharashtra's Beed and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

Today, a group of Maratha Kranti Morcha workers blocked the railway tracks in Solapur. The protestors burned tires on the railway tracks, holding saffron flags.

Railway officials and Solapur City Police detained two protesters, identified as Ram Jadhav and Nishant Salve. The officials managed to get the protesters off the railway tracks, India Today reported.

Incidents of violence were also reported from Maharashtra's Jalna district where a group of people set ablaze a panchayat samiti office during a protest.

Supporters chanting "Ek Maratha Lakh Maratha" reached the panchayat samiti office at Ghansawangi in the district on Monday night, and vandalised property by setting it on fire. Some important documents and furniture in two rooms of the office were damaged, an official from Ghansawangi police station said.

In another incident in Jalna, some protestors tried to block trains at a railway gate in Shelgaon village of Badnapur tehsil on Monday. They sat on the railway tracks in a bid to disrupt train services.

Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis today said that the incident that happened in Beed cannot be supported and that the government is "very positive in giving reservations to Marathas". He said some decisions have been taken regarding it today as well. "But some people are trying to spread violence and it will not be tolerated and strict action will be taken. We have received all the CCTV footage and the individuals visible in it have attempted to burn people alive." He said action would be taken under section 307 of the IPC.