Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis assured a delegation led by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday late evening, that the state government will recommend to the Centre asking them to give Dhangar community status of Scheduled Tribes (STs).
The community leaders however slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for cheating them and said they are disappointed with this assurance. After the assurance, Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes (VJNT) have planned to hold ‘Elgar morcha’ on the first day of the budget session. Over 250 castes from Other Backward Classes (OBCs) have supported the ‘Elgar morcha’.
Reacting to the Fadnavis-Thackeray meeting, Prakash Shendge, a Dhangar community leader said they felt short changed. “We were expecting the government would have given a ST status to the community, instead of sending a recommendation to the union government.
We struggled for over four years. The BJP government had assured that in the first cabinet meeting they would give Dhangars the status of ST. However, they have cheated us. We will now pull down the BJP-Sena governments in the centre and state,” said Shendge.
Meanwhile, in a meeting organised by the OBC, VJNT Sangharsh Samiti, a coordination committee, has decided that over 250 castes of OBCc and 58 from the VJNT category, will participate in an ‘Elgar morcha’ which will start from Byculla near Rani Baugh to Azad Maidan, on Monday.