President of the Gujarat Police Patel Union (GPPU), which owes allegiance to CITU (Lal Vavta), Vijay Shenmare said on Wednesday that as many as 18,000 former police patels from all over the state will march from Pathik Ashram in Sector 11 of Gandhinagar to the Sachivalaya, where leaders will represent their case to the Chief Minister.

The police patel system was scrapped from all districts a decade ago, but is still in force in the Dangs of South Gujarat. The GPPU holds that it is illegal on part of the Government to scrap the system through a notification, as the union had already filed a writ petition in the High Court in 1984.

``The government has scrapped the police patel system, that instituted by the British, without any alternative in place,'' alleged Namdev Shenmare, general secretary of the union. He added that the law and order situation in interior villages was deteriorating and it was impossible for the government to set up police chowkies in every village.

The GPPU had approached the High Court in 1985, demanding better remuneration for their services. When the system was scrapped in 1989 during Amarsingh Chaudhary's reign, each police patel received an annual honourarium between Rs 160 and Rs 320. Police Patels were appointed by the government through district magistrates and were non-political in nature. They reached the spot of crime in villages and reported the matter to the nearest police station.

Shenmare, although acknowledging the impartial nature of the new system, where sarpanchs have partially substituted the police patels, said -- ``The sarpanch has political affiliations and none can expect justice in such a situation.'' He added that the Government had done nothing to assist the 18,000 police patels who were left jobless after the 1989 government notification.

The leaders also alleged that while a Congress government scrapped the police patel system, the present BJP government was no better and was just ``dangling the carrot.'' The government agreed to restore the system in 1997, Shenmare said and, added that even chief minister Keshubhai Patel had assured the delegation last year that since the issue was a policy matter it would be ``treated sympathetically.''

``But even the preent government do not seem to too interested in re-introducing the system,'' he said. Shenmare also demanded an answer as to why the system was abolished in Gujarat while it was in effect in all other states.