Panchamasali community meet in Akkalkot to press OBC quota demand

A special meeting of the Lingayat Panchamasali community has been called in Akkalkot on Saturday, September 26, to press for OBC reservation benefits for the community. The meeting aims not just at the reservation demand but also at spreading awareness among people about the community's various rights and demands.

The meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Jagadguru Pujya Basava Mrityunjaya Guruji at 5 pm at Lokapure Hall near the bus station. The idea behind the meeting is to give the Panchamasali community's reservation demand in Maharashtra an organised shape, take the message to the community's people and decide the strategy ahead.

A large movement led by Jagadguru Pujya Basava Mrityunjaya Guruji has earlier been mounted in Karnataka to secure OBC reservation for the Lingayat Panchamasali community. To take their demand to the government, community members had also undertaken a foot march from Vijayapura to Bengaluru. Taking cue from that movement, the Panchamasali community in Maharashtra has now come together to organise and raise the demand for OBC reservation.

Saturday's meeting will discuss what stand should be taken going forward on the reservation issue for the Panchamasali community in Maharashtra, how to pursue the demands with the government, and what programmes should be run further for the community's rights.

Organisers said Jagadguru Basava Mrityunjaya Guruji has recently met the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, where he raised the community's various demands. The organisers say the reservation issue is very important for the community's children in terms of education, job opportunities and their future.

The organisers have appealed to all members of the community to come together for its various demands and to attend the Akkalkot meeting in as large a number as possible.