Curfew in parts of Beed district after violence during Maratha quota stir; Internet services shut

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A curfew was imposed in parts of Maharashtra's Beed district on Monday evening after large-scale violence and arson during the ongoing agitation for Maratha reservation with two MLAs and a former state minister facing the ire of protesters, the local administration said.

Internet services were also been shut in Beed in central Maharashtra, an official said.

Collector Deepa Mudhol Munde issued the curfew order after a series of incidents of violence and arson targeting properties of politicians in Beed city and the district.

According to the order, agitations and hunger strikes are on in different parts of Beed district in support of the demand for providing a quota in government jobs and educational institutions to Maratha community members.

The agitation became intense from midnight of October 29 when buses and government vehicles of various officials were torched in the district, it said.

On Monday, marches were taken out to various government offices in the district and some of them were set on fire and pelted with stones, leading to loss of public as well as private properties on a large-scale, said the order.

Therefore, the district collector decided to impose a curfew in parts of Beed till 'further orders', it said.

The curfew was enforced in a periphery of 5 kilometres from the collector office, head offices of talukas along with all national highways passing through the district, the order said.

When contacted, Inspector General of Police (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar range) Dnyaneswar Chavan told PTI that , 'Security has been beefed up at the residences, offices of public representatives and ministers. Additional force has been deployed in Beed district.' Earlier in the day, the residence of NCP (Ajit Pawar group) MLA Solanke at Majalgaon town in Beed district was set on fire and stones were hurled at it by a group of quota agitators late in the morning, police said.

The group also set ablaze a car parked at the residence of Solanke after an audio clip of the MLA, in which he purportedly spoke about the Maratha quota agitation and made a veiled comment on the fasting quota activist Jarange, went viral.

After the arson at the legislator's home, a group of Maratha reservation activists dispersed from there and later set ablaze the first floor of the Majalgaon Municipal Council building and vandalised it, a police official said.

A group of Maratha quota activists barged into the residential premises and office of NCP MLA Sandeep Kshirsagar in Beed city and set them on fire in the evening, he said.

Police swung into action and dispersed the crowd which had gathered outside the MLA's residence and the office, said the official.

In another incident, the residence of former state minister Jaydutt Kshirsagar was torched and pelted with stones in Beed city by protesters.

The violence and arson took place at a time when Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange is continuing his indefinite hunger strike at Antarwali Sarati village in Jalna district, where his fast entered the 6th day on Monday, in support of the reservation demand.

Maratha community members have been staging protests in different parts of the state seeking reservation in government jobs and education under the OBC category.