Shirdi villagers call off May 1 bandh

Nashik: The villagers of Shirdi have called off the proposed bandh on May 1 at the temple town after a meeting with the Ahmednagar guardian minister, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil.The former chairman of Shirdi Nagar Panchayat, Shivaji Gondkar, said that Vikhe Patil held a meeting with the villagers on Friday and convinced them not to go ahead with the bandhas there will be a huge footfall of devotees at the temple on that day due to a public holiday."The minister has assured the villagers that he would discuss the issues raised by the villagers with Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. On his request, the villagers took the decision not to observe the bandh," added Gondkar. The villagers had called the bandh demanding 50% reservation of locals in the board of the Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust (SSST), the apex decision-making body of the temple trust. The state government has recently invited applications from people for setting up the board. The 18-member board that was formed by the previous government was dissolved by the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court in September last year.They are also opposed to the move by the state government to replace the existing Shirdi police and private security with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for the security of the temple premises. Sources from the SSST said that nothing has been finalised about deployment of the CISF jawans.
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