Mumbai: The state government is leaving no stone unturned to get the political mileage out of the implementation of the Maratha quota. Hours after the Supreme Court refused to stay the Maratha quota, the public works dept (PWD) announced recruitment of 52 deputy engineers from the Maratha community candidates. Of them, 34 have been issued appointment letters. The Maratha reservation is expected to help BJP and Shiv Sena in the upcoming Assembly election. More interestingly, the appointments are made for the posts, which are going to vacant in December. Since the election is expected to be held before October, the state government hurriedly announced the recruitment.
Chandrakant Patil, the PWD Minister, is a Maratha face of the Fadnavis Government. He headed the cabinet sub-committee for the implementation of the Maratha quota. He also played a key role to negotiate with Maratha Kranti Morcha that organised massive rallies. Patil tried to portray it was he who first did recruitment under the Socially Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) Reservation meant for the community. After the SEBC Reservation Act 2018 was enforced, the state government started the process of recruitment. As per this process, PWD started process of hiring junior engineers. The PWD also held written test for 405 posts of junior engineers (civil) Group B, which are actually going to get vacant till December 31, 2019.
After the Bombay HC reduced the reservation from 16% to 13%, the recruitment process was completed. Of the 52 selected candidates, 34 are male, 16 are women and 2 are Maratha sportsperson. The recruitment for other posts will be completed immediately, Patil said. “The Maratha reservation will help the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in the Assembly election. At least 50% Maratha votes will go to the saffron alliance. Even though the Congress-NCP tieup gave this reservation, the BJP-Sena government cleared all hurdles,” said Vinayak Mete, who fought for the reservation. Mete is also the head of the Shiv Sangram Party, which is in alliance with the BJP-Sena tieup.
