An alarming situation in the State of Maharashtra which has arisen due to implementation of new reservation quota, thereby increasing the percentage of reservation to 78%. To oppose it and to press the demand to find solution, Save Merit Save Nation (SMSN) on Friday took out a massive rally. Over 62 groups belonging to open caste participated in the rally.

 

All associations came under aegis of Save Merit Save Nation to highlight their plight to public and voice their concern to policy makers and in a democratic manner took out a peaceful rally from Yeshwant Stadium to RBI Square through Panchsheel square-Variety square-Morris College T point. The rally concluded at RBI Square. Anil Laddhad and Sanjay Deshpande spoke on this occasion. Anup Marar proposed a vote of thanks. More than 20,000 people participated in this rally. The rally with banners of these associations followed a disciplined sequence of marchers followed by two wheelers and four-wheelers. Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce distributed buttermilk to all rally participants. Even a housekeeping agency was hired by organisers to keep the route and area clean. Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Guardian Minister reached Samvidhan square and met the agitators. SMSN delegation handed him over the memorandum which he accepted and assured to take measures on it.

 

Anil Laddhad bemoaned that there are so many youngsters who are now inspired to spend their life here in new vibrant India envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But unfortunately since reservation has hit the 78% mark in Maharashtra they won’t be able to do so. The reservation leaves a few seats for the ones who truly deserve.

Sanjay Deshpande asked if after 72 years of freedom reservation was still needed; all political parties needed to question themselves where had they been going wrong. The day wasn’t far away when open category would vanish once and for all. At least that day the picture would be clear and no meritorious youth would spend their time and sweat for a failed cause.

 

Anup Marar thanked all 62 associations and their members and stated that this freedom from excessive reservation movement is novel since all open caste groups along with creamy layers’ from Teli Samaj and Maratha community across religions including Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Jains, etc., have joined to fight the scourge of overwhelming reservations.

 

Shreekrishna Buty, Sachin Poshattiwar, Archana Kothari, Rajendra Kulkarni, Vivek Ranade, Harshad Bhisikar, Roy Thomas, Navin Chandak, Noorul Ameen, Ashutosh Gotey, Satish Poshettiwar, Sachin Khandekar, Manish Bidwai, Gopal Laddhad, Dinesh Bhaiyaa, Bacchu Pande, Nandu Ghare, Brijesh Segan, Alok Pande, Gopal Sahani, Nitin Gupta, Vivek Bhalerao, Sudhir Kapoor, Pushkar Poshattiwar, Amit Heda, Rajesh Atal, Umesh Deshpande, Rahul Pande, Alok Umre, Vijay Rathi, Mukund Mohokar, Pradyumn Chaoji, Chaitanya Shembekar, Raj Angnani, Viju Upadhyay and many others worked hard for this rally.

 

Anil Laddhad, Hemant Gandhi, Suresh Jagyasi, Ravi Mungilwar, Satish Pendhari, Nandu Kolwadkar, Arup Mukherjee, R G Chandak, Kailash Jogani, Roy George, Urmila Devi Agarwal, Prakash Mehadia, Rajesh Kabra, K K Thomas, Vrushali Shiledar, Bhanu Rajgopalan, Pradeep Jaju, Nilesh Rathi, Aarti Deshpande, Dinesh Rathi, Rajesh Shah, Abhijeet Ambhaikar, Marykutty Thomas, Ajay Gupta, K Jagadeesan, Dilip Rathi, Milan Sahni, Mahesh Kumar, Dinesh Taori, Milind Kekre, Meenakshi Mishra, Pradnya Gijre, Rahul Pande, Laghuvendu Shekhar, Habeeb Khan, R D Salodkar, Sushil Shrivastava, Suresh Bang, Manish Tibdiwal, Vinod Fafat Trilokinath Sidhra, Anand Saxena, Mahesh Boob, Dilip Vyas, T S Oberoi, Mahesh Ratkanthiwar, Deepak Saxena, N N Chandak, Santosh Dhole, Narendra Gandhi, Pragya Deshpande, Hajarilal Agarwal, Munna Mahajan, Rajesh Mundhada, Vivek Harkare, Atul Rewatkar and Smita Harkare were the set leaders who led the 20,000 crowd including participants from Chandrapur, Wardha, Yavatmal, Akola and Gondia.

 

Nag Vidarbha Central Sindhi Panchayat, Nagpur Maheshwari Sabha, Nag Vidarbha Chamber of Commerce, Arya Vaish Samaj, Agarwal Samaj, Chitpavan Brahman Sangh, Akhil Bhartiya Brahman Mahasangh, Vaishya Ekta Parishad, Shree Agrasen Mandal, Vidarbha Kayasth Samaj, South Indian Association, Nagpur Chamber of Commerce Limited, Gujarati Samaj, Sanatan Dharma Yuvak Sabha, Catholic Association of Nagpur, Bengali association, Sikh Samaj, Arya Samaj, Kerala Catholic Association, ABBM Mahila Aghadi, Jain Samaj, Agrahari Samaj, Kanyakubj Vaishya Samaj, Madhya Bhartiya Punjabi Samaj, Punjab Seva Samiti, Ved Pracharini Sabha, Intezamia Committee, Mehdi bagh, Sthanakvasi Jain Samaj, Bohra Muslim Samaj, Arya Samaj Dayanand Bhavan, Shree Agrasen Mandal, Maheshwari Panchayat, Sitabuldi, Vidarbha Taxpayers Association, Akhil Bhartiya Bahuudesshiya Hindi Bhashiy Brahman Mahasangh, Parshuram Sarvabhashiya Brahman Mahasangh, Akhil Bhartiya Maheshwari Maha Sabha - Nagpur, Digambar Jain Parvar Mandir Trust, Jain Rajnaitik Chetna Manch, Jyeshta Mitra Mandal, Ayodhya Vyasi Vaish Samaj, Kesharwani Vaish Kalyan Samiti, Khandelwal Samaj, Snehi Engineers Sanstha, Shree Bikaneri, Maheshwari Panchayat, Sahu Samaj, Teli Samaj, Nagpur, Rajasthani Mahila Mandal, Patidar Samaj, Sanatan Dharma Mahila Samiti and many other organisations along with other allied groups who constitute more than 38% of population have united to join under Save Merit Save Nation forum expressing concern over reducing number of seats for open category students from school, all colleges, post-graduation and jobs along with policy of Government to have caste specific jobs.