Mumbai: The government needs to have a dialogue with young people if it wants to retain power, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said as he inaugurated the ‘Yuva Sangharsh Yatra’ taken out by his grand nephew Rohit Pawar in Pune on Tuesday. The party is planning a mass outreach program ahead of the elections, sources have said.
The yatra, a foot march from Pune to Nagpur, will highlight the issues faced by young people in Maharashtra. Participants will travel to 13 districts, covering more than 800 kilometres. The 45-day march will end in Nagpur during the Winter Session of the state legislature.
Pawar addresses youth
“This march will encourage the youth from the state, and I am sure that the process of transformation and fulfilment of your demands will get initiated from this Yuva Sangharsh Yatra. The best example of this yatra is that the moment you decided to start [the march], the decision of contractual recruitment was withdrawn by the government,” Pawar said. “By the time the yatra reaches Nagpur, if those in the government want to keep power in their hands, they cannot ignore the youth, who are carrying out this yatra in a peaceful, democratic way. If the government takes that kind of approach [ignores the march], they will have to pay a heavy price,” he said. The NCP leader said the charter of demands of the youth includes a call for educational institutes to not charge exorbitant fees and return the excess fees charged from parents of the wards.
“The other demands are recruitment on vacant posts of teachers and professors in schools and colleges. This recruitment process should be done through the MPSC. And the development of information technology sectors in two-tier cities like Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Solapur, Kolhapur and Amravati,” he said. The other demands include withdrawal of the school adoption scheme and cluster school project, enactment of a law against exam paper leaks, starting the process of recruitment of over 2,50,000 candidates (across various departments) and waiver of interest on education loans. For all these demands, a dialogue is needed with the government, Pawar said.
“You clutch all these demands together and submit them to the chief minister and if you wish, I will speak to the CM to convene a meeting for all these demands made by the youth, and I will personally be present at the meeting with you people,” the NCP chief said. He said the CM will be asked to present a timeline for a decision on these demands and if the demands are fulfilled, the CM will be congratulated. “But if the work is not done, I will decide what to do,” he said. “But I am sure that the CM of the state will look into all these issues with great seriousness and resolve these issues,” he added. Meanwhile, after the function, while Pawar was returning home, pro-Maratha reservation activists raised placards with ‘Sharad Pawar Go Back’ written on them. They also tried to stop his cavalcade.
Demands:
-Educational institutes should not charge exorbitant fees
-Return of excess fees charged from parents of the wards
-Recruitment on vacant posts of teachers and professors in schools and colleges
-Development of information technology sectors in two-tier cities like Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Solapur, Kolhapur and Amravati
