Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.
Credit: Instagram/@mieknathshinde
In a significant development, the Eknath Shinde-led BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP government on Friday assured the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community that their reservation quota would not be disturbed while providing reservation to other communities.
The assurance came when a delegation of the the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, the apex association of the OBCs, met Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, Other Backward Bahujan Welfare Minister Atul Save, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar at the Sahyadri guest house at Malabar Hill in Mumbai.
“The government has assured that the existing reservation of the OBC would not be disturbed while they are committed to give reservation to the Maratha community,” BJP leader Ashish Deshmukh said.
The delegation was led by Babanrao Taywade, the President of Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh.
“The meeting was very positive,” he said.
Members of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh and the All-Union OBC Kunbi Federation have been on a relay hunger strike for over a fortnight.
Of the total 52 per cent reservation in Maharashtra, SCs and STs account for 13 and 7 per cent, respectively, OBCs get 19 per cent, Vimukta Jati & Nomadic Tribes, Special Backward Class and Nomadic Tribes account for 13 per cent.
The OBC leadership has demanded that Marathas should not be issued Kunbi caste certificates and they should not be included within the OBC category.
It may be mentioned, that the Maharashtra government assured Jalna-based activist Manoj Jarange-Patil that it would issue Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas from the Marathwada region who possess revenue or education documents from the Nizam-era recognising them as Kunbis - a move that would enable them to get OBC reservation.
The Kunbi community is a sub-caste of Marathas that gets the benefit of OBC category.