Mahesana

Gujarat government has canceled the permission of Patel community’s rally on July 28 in Vijapur town of north Gujarat to demand reservation in jobs and education.

The decision has been taken by local Mamlatdar in view of law and order situation following violence in Visnagar during similar rally organized by same outfit today.

It should be mentioned that a rally by Patel community demanding reservation today turned violent in Gujarat’s Visnagar town following which police used teargas shells to control the mob.

Suresh Vanol, a journalist of TV9 chhannel covering the rally suffered a minor injury during the violence.

At least 25,000 men and women from the community took out a rally, organised under the banner of ‘Patidar Anamat Samiti’, in Visnagar town demanding that Patels (Patidars) be included in the Other Backward Class(OBC) category. When the rally reached near the office of local BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel, some community members tried to approach the leader and hand over a memorandum to him. However, when they did not find Patel in his office, some of the members got angry and started vandalising his office and nearby shops. Some of the people in the rally turned violent and went on damaging property. We also received reports of stone-pelting as well as setting a car on fire. Thus, police was forced to lob at least ten teargas shells to disperse the crowd. To control the mob, local police fired around ten teargas shells. One of the rally organisers Mahesh Patel claimed that people from some other organisation were behind the violence.

“Some elements of Sardar Patel group, who came from Kheda district to take part in the rally, resorted to violence, otherwise the rally was going on peacefully. No one from Patel community was involved in damaging property, it was done by outsiders,” Patel said.

It should be mentioned here that Patel community had earlier organized such rallies in north Gujarat’s Mahesana and Mansa town. At both places permissions were given by respective authorities. Both rallies were peaceful. But today’s rally turned violent. Patels want to hold a large rally in Ahmedabad next month. The administration is not likely to grant permission for that.

– DeshGujarat