PAAS to organise Shaheed Yatra to renew Patel quota agitation

A faction of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) is planning to revive the agitation for reservations for the Patel community in Gujarat by taking out an over 3,000-km march.

The "Patidar Anamat Andolan Shaheed Yatra" is also a way to pay homage to fourteen persons who "sacrificed their lives for the community" during the 2015 agitation, PAAS convener Dilip Sabva said today.

The PAAS faction represented by him is a "social organisation and not a political one", and only those who want to raise social issues concerning the community will be invited for the march, he said.

Hardik Patel, who led PAAS's agitation in 2015, was not involved in organising the march, but he has been invited, Sabva said.

The yatra will start from Unjha in Mehsana district on June 24 and wind its way through 97 towns in the state before ending at Kagvad near Rajkot, he said.

It will feature statues of fourteen "martyrs".

"We are starting from Unjha as it is the home of Uniya Mata, the community's family deity," Sabva said.

"We want to ensure that sacrifices of the men of our community do not go to waste. We also want to renew the demand for reservations which hasn't been met by the state government," he said.

"One of our main demands is that government withdraw FIRs against people from the community (filed during the earlier agitation). The government made tall promises, but still many people continue to do the rounds of courts," Sabva said.

All Patidar leaders, except those who joined the ruling BJP before the last year's Assembly elections, were invited to join in the yatra, he said.

The PAAS also aims to set a record of the distance covered during the march, and plans to invite observers from Guinness Book of Records, he said.

It will observe August 26 as 'martyrs' day', he said.

A rally organised by the PAAS in Ahmedabad on August 26, 2015 for demanding reservations in education and jobs had turned violent. The violence spread across the state, claiming 14 lives.

Following the agitation, the government formed a commission to give educational and financial benefits to the community in the unreserved category.