Nagpur, Sep 18 (IANS): Thousands of OBCs took out protest marches in Nagpur, Gondiya, and Hingoli on Monday protesting at the Maharashtra government’s plans to issue OBC Caste certificates to the Maratha community.

The OBCs carried banners, flags and posters and raised slogans demanding that the government "should beware and not succumb to Maratha pressures" by indiscriminately issuing OBC Caste certificates to the community.

Several leaders said that they will not sit quiet if the state government carves Maratha quotas from the OBC share and cautioned the administration against any such steps as it would be injustice to the OBC cause.

Several parties including the ruling ally Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, and others have supported the OBCs demands that their quotas should not be disturbed.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar, of the Congress, questioned the government why it did not take the OBCs demands on par with the Marathas to ensure equitable quotas and justice for all communities.

"Why no government representatives, ministers or CM Eknath Shinde is coming to talk to the OBCs who are protesting since the past 10 days," he asked.

The Congress leader also urged the government to convene an all-party meeting - on the lines of a similar meet held for the Marathas – to discuss the reservations of the OBCs to the state government’s moves, and also discuss quotas for the Dhangars.

Wadettiwar called upon the government to display the same level of commitment to the OBCs as it had done for the Marathas last week when their leader Manoj Jarange-Patil had sat on an indefinite hunger strike.

Besides Nagpur, similar processions were taken out in Hingoli and Gondiya districts and later delegations of the OBC leaders submitted a memorandum of their demands to the respective Collectors.