Mumbai: Even as the Maratha community is waiting for reservation, the Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) in Mumbai is gearing up to submit the data to substantiate its claim of ‘economic and social’ backwardness to the State Backward Class Commission. This was decided at a meeting on Friday after the state government’s judicial commission bought time till July 31 from the Bombay High Court to submit the main report.
Members of the community will submit the data to the commission on July 13, with forms stating their annual income and problems in securing jobs and concession in college admission fees, as a tribute to the Korpardi rape victim who died on the same day in 2016. Moreover, claiming there is still no proper implementation of the 50% college fee waiver for students under the Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj EBC scholarship scheme, the Maratha community members have been personally visiting the colleges to inform students about the benefits.
Pankaj Ghag, a member of the MKM organising committee, said, “There is still lack of awareness in Mumbai as the Government Notification regarding the scholarship scheme is not being properly implemented by colleges. Due to this, students have been denied the benefits of the scheme.” The meeting on Friday was the first after the huge morcha on August 9 last year. Now, in order to speed up the process, the commission has asked several organizations under the Maratha community umbrella to submit their data by July 14, so that they can submit the report by July 31.
Virendra Pawar, one of the main MKM organisers, exhorted the huge gathering to submit data in large numbers. “If the turnout in the morcha is huge, it should translate into as many forms. Solapur already has submitted over five lakh forms,” Pawar informed. Following the form submissions, the State Backward Class Commission will look into the voluminous data placed by the government in its affidavit to support its decision of granting 16% reservation to the Maratha community.
