Taking a cue from the demand for reservation for the Patel community in Gujarat, the Congress has given an ultimatum to the Devendra Fadnavis government in the state over quotas for Maratha, Dhangar (shepherd) and Muslim communities.

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Demanding reservation for these communities, leader of opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil on Wednesday said that the Congress would not allow ministers to move on streets if the government did not take any decision in the next 15 days.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, the Congress state unit headquarters in Nariman Point, Vikhe-Patil said that the previous Congress-NCP government was always in favour of reservations for these communities. The Fadnavis government was not in favour of reservation to the Mulsims for obvious reasons, but they were betraying the Dhangar community despite their poll promise, he said, pointing out that the BJP manifesto had made such a promise.

The leader of opposition criticised the Jalyukta Shivaar Abhiyaan and said that Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh had advocated participation of people in the water conservation initiatives but this government completely handed over the campaign to bureaucrats and contractors. He said the Fadnavis government had only renamed the Congress-NCP campaign of Jalyukta Gaav Abhiyaan. Moreover, he said, due to lack of public participation, there was corruption in deepening and widening of existing water sources.

Despite unprecedented water crisis in Marathwada, the government has not provided any relief to farmers in the region, Vikhe-Patil said. On one hand there was no rains and on the other, the government had not rescheduled the farm loans, he said, adding that this had hit the farmers hard.