Maha dy speaker jumps into Mantralaya net to oppose inclusion of Dhangars in ST category

Mumbai: High drama unfolded at Mantralaya, the state secretariat in south Mumbai Friday after some tribal leaders, including Maharashtra Maharashtra assembly Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, jumped onto the safety net installed there over the tribal quota issue, officials said.

Nobody was injured in the incident, they said. The protesters included two MLAs and an MP from the ruling Mahayuti alliance in the state.

NCP legislators Zirwal and Kiran Lahamate and BJP's tribal MP Hemant Savara were among those who jumped from the third floor onto the safety net, that was installed in 2018 after a spate of suicide attempts at the secretariat.

After police personnel removed these leaders from the net, the tribal representatives then gathered in the ground floor passage and began a sit-in claiming that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was not meeting them to discuss the quota issue.

“I am an adivasi first and then an MLA and a deputy speaker,” Zirwal told reporters when asked what led him to resort to such a protest. “CM Shinde should meet the protesters,” he added.

BJP MLC Gopichand Padalkar said Zirwal holds a constitutional post and there is no need to take such an extreme step.

Zirwal said the state government should offer protection to students who have been protesting since a fortnight against the halt to recruitment under the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) in Maharashtra.