'Rift among people over quota worrying'

Days after NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar came out of hibernation on the blazing issue of reservation for the Maratha quota and finally met Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to discuss the finer points, on Saturday at Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar he held a media interaction and expressed concerns over the widening rift among communities, especially the Marathas and the Vanjaris.

Within hours of the presser after releasing a book at a university, Pawar spoke in Mumbai at a programme organised by a leading Marathi news channel and said there’s an uneasy situation in Jalna and Beed districts and he will soon go on a tour to speak to the locals in the Marathwada region. “I heard that people from one community are not ready to have tea from the hotels run by the other. I have never heard of this before in Maharashtra. This needs to be changed by creating an atmosphere of mutual trust with dialogue,” he said.