Maratha community people welcome Maratha reservation activist Manoj Jarange Patil as he arrives to hold a meeting, in Thane/
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: In a significant development vis-a-vis the Maratha vs OBC reservation issue, the committee formed to define the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for issuing Kunbi-Maratha and Maratha-Kunbi certificates based on old records, submitted its report to the Maharashtra government on Monday.
Kunbis are a sub-caste of Marathas and are covered under Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Justice Sandeep Shinde (Retd), who headed the committee, presented the report to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar and members of the Cabinet.
Amid the hunger strike undertaken by Manoj Jarange-Patil, the government appointed the five-member panel headed by Justice Shinde.
The initial report of the Committee was accepted on October 31.
This is the second report and has been submitted when the winter session of the Maharashtra legislature is underway in Nagpur.
The Assembly and Council had discussed the issue and CM Shinde is expected to make a statement on Tuesday or Wednesday.
It may be mentioned, on Sunday, Jarange-Patil claimed that there are 54 lakh cases in which the term Kunbi is mentioned in old documents related to the Maratha community.
However, he has refused to budge and gave time to the Shinde-led Maha Yuti dispensation till December 24, 2023 though the government had earlier insisted on January 2, 2024 as the deadline and are now seeking more time.
The government has informed Jarange-Patil of the outcome of the Supreme Court on the state’s curative petition on blanket reservation to the Marathas.
The OBCs are up in arms as the Kunbi-Maratha and Marathi-Kunbi certificates would make a large number of people eligible to get benefits of reservation in jobs and education as OBCs.
Senior NCP leader and state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal had been demanding scrapping of the Shinde Committee and had questioned its powers.
Advocate Gunaratna Sadavarte and his wife Jayashri Patil have been highly critical of the Maratha reservation demand and have opposed it in courts. "Reservation beyond 50 per cent will cause reverse discrimination,” Sadavarte had said earlier and had decided to oppose it in courts.