Mumbai: Taking an aggressive stance on the issue of rising unemployment in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) on Tuesday announced a state-wide tricolour motorcycle rally titled ‘Berozgar Hakk Elgar’ (Unemployed Rights Elgar) on August 27.
The rally will take place across all districts and administrative divisions in the state.
Through this protest, the party aims to highlight several key demands, including ensuring jobs for locals in Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) zones, filling vacant government posts immediately, preventing exam paper leaks, and completing police recruitment drives on time.
The motorcycle rallies will launch from key locations in each district and division and end at the respective District Collectorates.
Regional leadership for the rallies has already been assigned. In Mumbai, National Working President and MP Supriya Sule, along with State President Shashikant Shinde, will lead the protest.
In Vidarbha (Nagpur), former minister Anil Deshmukh will lead; in Marathwada (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar), former minister Rajesh Tope; in North Maharashtra (Nashik), MLAs Rohit Pawar and Sunil Bhusara; in Western Maharashtra, Jayant Patil and Harshvardhan Patil; and in Konkan Division (Thane), MLA Jitendra Awhad.
NCP (SP) has demanded regular and timely recruitment for vacant positions across all government departments, re-establishment of employment exchange centres in every Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation zone specifically for residents, creation of an action plan to guarantee jobs for locals based on their qualifications, stringent action against those involved in exam paper leaks and recruitment malpractices, immediate clearing of the recruitment backlog in reserved categories, and prioritising regular government employment for qualified youth over contractual hiring.
It has also demanded urgent recruitment to fill vacant positions in the police force, ensuring candidates do not cross the age eligibility limit due to procedural delays, and the announcement of concrete, district-wise job-creation programmes.
Meanwhile, NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar visited the ongoing agitation of tribal students in Manjari (Pune) and spoke with them.
“Today, in the meeting of MLAs convened by the Minister, it came to light that the Minister of the Tribal Department himself was speaking negatively about the students’ demands, which is extremely unfortunate. However, due to pressure from the students, it has been learned that all MLAs from the tribal community will meet the Chief Minister tonight,” he said.
He added that concrete decisions must be made on the students’ demands; otherwise, this agitation will intensify further, and if justice is not served, the students themselves will demand the resignation of the ministers from this department; they should consider this as well.
“But under no circumstances should there be a withdrawal from the agitation until the demands are accepted; we are all together with them; this assurance was given to these students,” he said.
(IANS)
