Mumbai, Sept. 3 -- After five days of sustained protest at Azad Maidan despite lack of adequate shelter, food and sanitation, over 30,000 protesters seeking reservation for Marathas under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota broke into celebration on Tuesday evening after Manoj Jarange-Patil, their leader, broke his indefinite fast and announced that the state government had acceded to most of their demands. Soon, the protest site and surrounding areas were covered in pink gulaal, which protesters smeared on each other to celebrate their victory. They danced to the thumping beats of scores of drums, climbed atop each other's shoulders and vehicles parked in the area, and raised "Patil, Patil" slogans in honour of their leader. Phone cameras went off every now and then, recording the historic moment and jubilant faces of protesters, most of whom had made their way to the city from remote districts in Marathwada and Vidarbha. "You won't see any more of us after 10 pm here," said an overjoyed Dattaray Sagde, 45, preparing to leave Azad Maidan for his home in Beed. "Now that Jarange has given us the signal to leave, we'll all be gone by tonight." The roads around CSMT and Azad Maidan, packed with vehicles of protesters and shut since the stir commenced on Friday, opened up soon after Jarange-Patil declared that the government had acceded to their demands. "What a few days it has been," said Hanuman Changbale, 28, from Parbhani who was in the city with his two younger brothers. "We travelled hundreds of kilometers, struggled with shortage of food and water, but did not give in. Instead, we arranged for reinforcements from our villages, saw all of Mumbai, persevered in our fight, and now, we have won," he said, preparing for the return journey. Akhil Thorat, 30, who reached the city on Tuesday morning with more than 5,000 bhakris and 10,000 water bottles said he had planned to stay here for at least a few days. "I came here as my people were facing a shortage. But now, there's no need anymore," he said. Food and water brought in from villages over the past two days, anticipating a prolonged protest, was distributed among protesters for their journey back home. Many protesters took trains to Vashi, where their trucks were parked, and where another celebration was underway. When asked how the government resolution (GR) issued on Tuesday would benefit them, the protesters had a common response. "Our future generations have better chances now," said Parmeshwar Shinde, 32, who runs an electrical shop in Latur. His father's four-acre farm is too small to sustain the family, and will be further divided among his siblings. "Earlier, Scheduled Castes and OBCs would secure admission in colleges even if they had lesser marks. They even paid lesser fees under the quota system. Now, we too will enjoy the same benefits too," he said. Others echoed his views, saying they would now stand a much better chance to secure government jobs and their standing in the marriage market too would improve. Meanwhile, around 1,200 sanitation workers, tasked with removing massive heaps of garbage from the protest site and surrounding areas, waited for protesters to empty out the premises. "We will begin full-scale cleaning only at night, after the protestors clear out. The area will be spic and span by tomorrow afternoon," said an official involved in the clean-up....