Dy CM apologises for Jalna lathi charge; Shinde announces panel

MUMBAI: Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday apologised to Maratha activists for the police lathi charge on them at Jalna last Friday, even as chief minister Eknath Shinde announced a panel to consider the activists' demands of being included in the OBC category for reservation benefits.

- Saurabha Kulshreshtha

Protests for reservation and to demand action against police officers responsible for the lathi charge continued on Monday, with agitation leader Manoj Jarange-Patil announcing he would stop drinking water from Tuesday if the government did not immediately issue an order for caste certificates.

On Monday, chief minister Eknath Shinde convened a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee on the Maratha reservation issue, which was attended by Fadnavis, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, chairman of the sub-committee on Maratha reservation Chandrakant Patil and others. Following the meeting, Fadnavis, in an apparent bid to defuse tensions, tendered an apology for the police action. "No one from Mumbai ordered the lathi charge-the decision was taken at the local level. But it was still unfortunate so as home minister, I apologise for it," said the deputy CM at a press conference.

He blamed the previous Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government and then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray for failing to act when the Supreme Court quashed the existing reservation in 2021.