Announcing that the state Cabinet is set to formally accept the report submitted by the Justice Sandeep Shinde committee, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said that in the first report submitted by the committee, over one lakh Marathas have been identified with valid proof, which can be considered for giving them reservation.
The CM said, “We will give reservation to the Maratha community in two phases, one through the Kunbi caste certificate and the other in general to the Maratha community on the basis of economic backwardness which will stand legal scrutiny.” He made the announcement at a media interaction after a meeting of a cabinet sub-committee meeting that was formed during the tenure of Devendra Fadnavis as CM and revived when the BJP formed government with Eknath Shinde.
Several Ministers Attended The Crucial Meeting
Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil, Revenue Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Rural Development Minister Girish Mahajan, PWD Minister Dadaji Bhuse, cooperatives minister Dileep Walse-Patil, excise minister Shambhuraj Desai, industries minister Uday Samant and school education minister Deepak Kesarkar, apart from officers from departments concerned attended the meeting.
At this meeting, Shinde said that another committee of three retired judges will be set up to advise the state government as well as the Backward Classes Commission on submission of a proposed curative petition in the Supreme Court in connection with the issue.
Shinde said that Justice (rtd) Shinde committee inspected over 1.73 crore entries in the old registers and found 11,530 entries related to Kunbi community. Before reviewing, these entries in Persian and Modi script (earlier used to write Marathi) need to be translated and that is the reason why it is taking time, he said, adding that the government is not taking any new decision in issuing Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas. “The decision was made in 1967 by the then government. We are just implementing the old decision,” he added.
Shinde also mentioned the shortcomings in the efforts made by previous governments to get Maratha reservation passed. “At one time, the government of Devendra Fadnavis gave reservation to the Maratha community and all the people together proved that the reservation was legally correct in the high court.
Later, when the matter went to the Supreme Court, the apex court found shortcomings in it and was rejected. Today I do not want to do politics on this matter, but it is true that when this matter went before the Supreme Court, it found negligence on the part of the government of that time (Uddhav govt) in many matters, which was necessary after the repeated demands of the Supreme Court,” Shinde said.
Shinde Hits Out At People Inciting Violence
He emphasised that his government is now following up on the curative petition pending in the Supreme Court and trying to make it understand as to how Maratha reservation is completely right from the point of view of the law. He also targeted the people inciting violence in the name of the Maratha reservation. “Those who are involved in violence should also keep in mind that it also harms the Maratha community and their families will also suffer due to it,” he added.
While stating that the officers concerned will be directed to issue Kunbi caste certificates to the eligible members of the community in Marathwada, Shinde also appealed to Manoj Jarange-Patil to not let the agitation go on the wrong track and see to it that it remains peaceful.
