Quota agiation of Patidar to be widened: Patel

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 7: Gujarat based Patidar Andolan leader P C Patel today said their stir was not against any caste or religion but to rectify the 'injustice' done to forward community in the name of reservation.

He was addressing a hunger strike in front of the Secretariat by leaders of Samstha Nair Samajam, an outfit of forward Nair community in the state, against government's "neglect" towards the issues faced by the community. Blaming political parties for the present system of reservation, he said reservation policy has not been amended by political parties due to vote bank politics.

Stating that Andolan was not against reservation, he said 'we demand that reservation policy should be relooked. The economic backwardness should be the cretaria for reservation he said. 'The system has to be changed',he said.

'All poor people in the country should get reservation benefits irrespective of religion and caste', he said adding "the agitation is for getting justice to all". All forward community have united in the fight against this reservation policy, he said adding the agitation would be taken to other parts of the country. 'Reservation is not an issue restricted to Gujarat. It is a national issue', he said.

PTI