NAGPUR: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday announced in the state legislative assembly that Mahayuti government would grant reservation to the Maratha community at a special session to be convened in February.
Winding up the discussions on the issue that lasted for two days with over 74 assembly members participating, the CM said Maharashtra State
Backward Class Commission
(MSBCC) was working on a war footing to collect ‘imperial data’ and evidence that would ensure a legally fool-proof and long-lasting reservation (In the Supreme Court).
“After submission of the commission report in a month from now, we will scrutinize the contents through our Law and Judiciary Department and table in the cabinet before the special session. Based on this report, reservation will be granted,” the CM said.
Reiterating that the BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP (Ajit Pawar) government was committed to grant reservation to the community suffering for ages, Shinde listed out steps taken by his and erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis governments in this regard to defend the reservation in the top court. “Those in direct blood-relation within families registered as Kunbis before 1967 will get the benefit,” he added, pointing out that the labour and farmer class within the mainstream of the community living in remote areas would largely get the advantage.
“A window of opportunity is still open in the Supreme Court in the form of a curative petition filed by us. We have roped in a battery of renowned senior lawyers, including Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi, Tushar Mehta and others to defend our stand. We are also taking help of legal experts, particularly those who had helped us to defend the reservation in the Bombay High Court. We have constituted their task force. Through the commission, we will provide more detailed survey reports along with the empirical and statistical data to the SC.”
Flaying the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government under the then CM Uddhav Thackrey for not taking the reservation seriously, the CM said they will remove all the discrepancies as pointed out by the top court while rejecting the reservation on May 5, 2021. However, CM reiterated that those who would indulge in forgery or fabricate the documents to illegally grab reservation would get stringent punishment and the officers involved will not be spared.
“The BJP government under Fadnavis had granted reservation to Marathas in 2018. It was upheld by the HC, but due to the MVA government’s apathy, it was lost in SC. The MVA should have submitted proper reports of public hearings conducted on the issue and related documents in the top court. The veteran leaders who are now speaking for the reservation could have granted them during the Mandal Commission. Now, both treasury and opposition benches are together on the issue and we will make it a reality soon.”
Reassuring the OBC community that their quota would not be reduced while granting reservation to Marathas, Shinde said the government had constituted a panel under retired judge Dilip Bhonsale to study the discrepancies pointed out by SC. “After we took over, we recruited over 4,000 youths into government jobs. Due to our efforts, scores of backward class students, mainly including Marathas, have cracked the UPSC and MPSC exams. We had convened a meeting of all parties to suggest a way out on providing reservation. I chaired ten meetings while two deputy CMs – Ajit Pawar and Fadnavis – headed 12 meetings of panels and subpanels in this regard. We will offer a reservation that would fit the framework of law and stand in the highest judiciary.”
Explaining the precarious conditions of the Maratha community, the CM said many of them were in the farming sector with small land holdings and purely dependent on nature. “About 40% of suicides by farmers by the members of this community. They are also into Mathadi, porters and other professions and hail from the lowest strata of the society. Many of them are staying in remote areas, which is not easily accessible for the common persons and are living in abject poverty. Most of them are deprived of the basic education and other basic facilities,” he said.
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