Dalits from Sangli village start long walk to Mumbai

KOLHAPUR: Roughly 700 dalit residents of Sangli's Bedag village, including children, have once again started their foot match to Mumbai. They have resolved to not return to their village till the work to rebuild the arch, which was demolished by the Bedag gram panchayat, starts.
On Monday, 150 dalit families from Bedag had congregated at Mangaon, the historic village in Kolhapur where Babasaheb Ambedkar had addressed his first conference of oppressed class people more than 100 years ago.
On Tuesday morning, the families started their walk to Mumbai. By the afternoon, the protesters had reached the Tilavani village in Hatkanangle.
Mahesh Kamble, a dalit leader, said, "The authorities approached us after we left our village on Monday. However, they failed to give us any assurance on the arch (named after BR Ambedkar) being rebuilt. The authorities have let us down by not following deputy CM's orders. The authorities also facilitated the gram panchayat to pass a resolution to not allow any arch. We will march to Mantralay and sit there for a protest."