Shinde promises Maratha quotas

Mumbai Amid protests for Maratha quota, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said a committee will submit its report within a month on how to issue Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas from Marathwada region. Kunbis (the community associated with agriculture) are grouped under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in Maharashtra.

“A committee was set up and asked to submit a report within a month on how to issue Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community from Marathwada. The state government has taken this issue seriously and we are working to find an amicable solution,” the chief minister told reporters here.

Marathas have been demanding the reservation in education and government jobs. Reservation in jobs and education provided by the then Maharashtra government to the Maratha community under the socially and educationally backward category in 2018 was quashed by the Supreme Court in May 2021, citing the 50 per cent ceiling on total reservations among other grounds.

“I have directed officials to study the Supreme Court’s verdict on the Maratha quota and recommend solutions. We need to establish that the Maratha community is backward,” the chief minister added. However, Manoj Jarange Patil, who has been on hunger strike in Jalna district, told reporters he would not call off the protest unless a government order (GR) is issued granting reservation in education and jobs to the Maratha community. Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna district became ground zero of the renewed agitation

for quota.

On Friday, police baton charged and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse a violent mob in the village after protesters allegedly refused to let authorities shift Jarange to hospital. Several persons. including 40 police personnel, were injured and more than 15 state transport buses were set ablaze in violence.