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Pune: THOUGH the Maharashtra Assembly in once voice passed a bill granting 10 per cent reservation to Maratha community in education field and jobs, Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil is not one bit happy with the decision.
”Though we welcome the government step, we object to getting a separate quota. This is because it will not stand judicial scrutiny. The Supreme Court will not allow reservation going above 10 per cent,” Jarange-Patil told reporters in Antarwali-Saraati.
The activist has called a meeting of Maratha experts, intellectuals, activists and citizens at Antarwali to decide the next course of agitation. ”We will decide the future course of agitation in our meeting,” Jarange-Patil said.
Jarange-Patil said his demand for conversion of gazette notification into a law still remains. ”I have been saying that the ”sage-soyare (relatives from a family tree) notification should be converted into a law. This is what the government has refused to do. I don’t whether the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde is under some kind of pressure and therefore avoiding to implement our demand,” he said.
The activist insisted that Maratha community should get quota only in OBC category. ”We never demanded a separate quota. We demanded quota in OBC category. This is because we were already in OBC category. But we were denied quota as Kunbi records were not found. Now Kunbi records are being found and lakhs of them have been found,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously passed a bill granting reservation up to 10 per cent to Maratha community. Once the bill is passed and Governor’s assent is received, it becomes an Act.
The bill gives 10 per cent reservation to Maratha community in education and jobs except in minority institutions. Those who annual income is more than Rs 8 lakh have been excluded from the quota.
It was Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who introduced the bill in the assembly. The bill was drafted on the basis of the survey for establishing social and educational backwardness of the community done by the Maharashtra State Backward Clas Commission.
