BMC will give jobs to kin of Samyukta Maharashtra martyrs ….GEETA DESAI
But the civic body has only managed to locate five families of martyrs who died during the movement
If all goes well, the kin of the martyrs who died fighting in the Samyukta Maharashtra movement will get jobs and financial assistance by the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on the lines of kin of freedom fighters.
The BMC accepted a proposal to this effect submitted by Rahul Shewale, a Sena corporator, who recently wrote to the civic body chief.
But it is proving tough for the BMC to trace the families of the “martyrs.” It has been able to locate only five of 91 such families.
But it is proving tough for the BMC to trace the families of the “martyrs.” It has been able to locate only five of 91 such families.
In the case of 14 other families, one person from each was given a job by the BMC in 1992. Now, Shewale wants the BMC to trace the remaining families and give them assistance.
“I tried tracing such families. I found five of them. I came to know that many of these martyrs’ families had to leave Mumbai because of hardship and unemployment. They have now settled in Kolhapur, Belgaum and Nashik,” Shewale said, alleging that the state government has not bothered to located them even after 58 years.
“The government did not do justice to them. ‘Help’ is a cheap word for them, for they deserve their right in the city for the freedom of which they laid their lives. The hutatmas (martyrs) who fought for a separate Maharashtra along with Mumbai as its capital have only remained in history chapters in books,” said Bhau Sawant, who played a key role in building Hutatma Chowk.
The family of Sitaram Ghadegaonkar – who died during the statehood movement in 1956 at the age of 17 – lives in Chinchpokli but nobody from the government has ever approached them. Sitaram’s brother Datta, 76, is living in absolute poverty.
THE SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT
THE SAMYUKTA MAHARASHTRA MOVEMENT
The Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti was founded in 1956 under the leadership of Keshavrao Jedhe in Pune. Prominent activists of the Samyukta Maharashtra Samiti were the noted literateur Acharya Prahlad Keshav Atre, well known social activist and writer Keshav Sitaram Thackeray or Prabodhankar Thackeray, freedom fighter Pandurang Mahadev Bapat known as Senapati Bapat and folk-singer Shahir AmarShaikh among others.
The movement demanded a separate state of Maharashtra with Mumbai as the capital. In January that year, police fired upon participants of a peaceful demonstration at Flora Fountain. 105 people died in the firing. Flora Fountain was subsequently renamed Hutatma Chowk and a memorial was built in their memory.
On May 1, 1960, the state of Maharashtra was formed from the state of Bombay, with the city of Mumbai as its capital.