Chavan to call all-party meet on Maratha reservation

The Maharashtra chief minister, Ashok Chavan on Thursday said he would convene an all-party meeting next week to decide on the contentious issue of reservations for the Maratha community.

Addressing a function to mark the birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji in Shivneri Fort, around 100 km from Pune, where pro-reservation activists staged a protest before his arrival, Chavan appealed to the agitating groups not to make a political capital out of the issue which was a social one.

Chavan said his government would build a Shivaji memorial in the Arabian sea off Mumbai and raise a statue of the 16th century warrior King at Raigad Fort in Konkan region.

Earlier, three activists of the Maratha outfit Sambhaji Brigade and a policeman were injured when the police indulged in lathi charge as the protesters turned unruly and hurled stones at a government helicopter that landed before the chief minister's chopper in the fort.