Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis on Monday lashed out at the Maha Vikas Aghadi government holding it responsible for the Supreme Court's order on cancellation of 27% political reservation to OBCs in local self-government. “The political reservation of OBCs came to an end only due to the reluctance of the state government and hence no seat will be reserved for the OBC community in the forthcoming local body elections in Maharashtra. The MVA government should take immediate steps to address the issue.
“I had suggested that the government should form a state backward class commission. The government spent time from March to June. It was said that if action is not taken as directed by the tribunal, then we cannot save the reservation. If the state had created a backward class commission, we could have restored this reservation. Unfortunately, our ministers for 15 months were busy in organizing rallies and morchas,” said Fadnavis. He asserted if the ministers had paid attention to the case instead of holding a protest, the reservation could have been maintained.
“I raised this issue in the state assembly. At the same time, there was a detailed discussion on what the state government should do next. After that, the Chief Minister called a meeting. In that meeting, I explained the whole process. With the formation of the State Backward Classes Commission, the process of compiling Empirical Data has to be expedited,” he said. He further stated that the same issue was raised by the Advocate General, the Secretary of the Law and Justice Department and the former Secretary of the Rural Development Department. Despite that, no action was taken.
