PUNE: More than 500 tribal college students from across districts on Monday kicked off the ‘Tribal Gen Z Ulganun’ march from Nashik city to culminate at Lok Bhavan in Mumbai as protest against state tribal development minister Ashok Uike and the alleged pathetic condition of tribal residential schools across Maharashtra. The 190 km march has been organised by the Sakal Adivasi Vidyarthi Andolan Kruti Samiti (SAVAKS).
A senior member of SAVAKS, Prashant Gavandhe, said that the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi; Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray; and Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke are expected to join the protest march once it reaches Mumbai by October 3. “Our main demand is the resignation of tribal development minister Ashok Uike as he has failed to live up to the expectations of the tribal fraternity in the state. He has done nothing for the community after he became a minister,” said Gavandhe. “More tribal students will be joining our march from rural Nashik and Thane district when we cross these areas,” he said.
The agitators have also demanded that the tribal development secretary and commissioner be transferred, and that the living conditions of hostels and tribal residential schools across the state be improved including better quality of food for students.
“We have also demanded ₹1 crore as compensation to be paid to the families of each of the three tribal girls who died and ₹50 lakh each to the other three injured students following an instance of snakebite at a tribal school hostel in Gadchiroli last month,” Gavandhe said.
{{/usCountry}}“We have also demanded ₹1 crore as compensation to be paid to the families of each of the three tribal girls who died and ₹50 lakh each to the other three injured students following an instance of snakebite at a tribal school hostel in Gadchiroli last month,” Gavandhe said.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, some of these students had started an indefinite hunger strike in Nashik to press for their demands. On September 3, Dipke met them and urged them to end their hunger strike, and instead shift their protest to Mumbai where top government authorities would pay heed to their demands.