Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal leaps from 3rd Floor in Mantralaya

Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal leaps from 3rd Floor in Mantralaya

The state secretariat (Mantralaya) on Friday was a witness to first-time scenes when the Maharashtra Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal and three other legislators leapt from the third floor to protest for the inclusion of a community in the Scheduled Tribes category.

Zirwal and three legislators, including a BJP MP, landed safely on a net one floor below which had been installed in 2018 to prevent suicide attempts in the secretariat(Mantralaya).

Zirwal, a member of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the three legislators made up his mind to jump from the Mantralaya.

As per Officials none of them sustained any injuries.
Videos which has gone viral showed the three legislators climbing back into the building after landing on the net.

Earlier in the day, some tribal MLAs held a protest in the Mantralaya complex amidst a cabinet meeting attended by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis, among others.

The Dhangar community in the state is currently in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and some of its members have been agitating in Pandharpur in Solapur district demanding their inclusion in the ST category. The demonstrators have claimed that their community is the same as the Dhangads which are listed as Scheduled Tribes in several states.

News Edit KV Raman