27 June,2014 07:20 AM IST | | Varun Singh
After a Narayan Rane-led committee got 16 per cent job reservation for the Marathas, his son advocated on Twitter that builders should also allocate a certain number of flats for them
Following the footsteps of his father Narayan Rane, who chaired a committee that recommended and got reservations for the Maratha community, Nitesh Rane wants reservations in housing societies for Marathi-speaking people.
Nitesh Rane
Rane junior has been quite vocal about the fact that Maharashtrians are not being sold flats, largely due to the fact that they are non-vegetarians. He wrote on social networking site Twitter, "Reservations in once Marathi centric areas of Mumbai should be considered! Builders should be told to give certain number of flats to Marathi families."
He further tweeted, "This will help us to ensure that Marathi percentage doesn't go down as, in spite of money, Marathis are not given flats by certain developers.
What say?" Rane referred to areas like Lalbaug, Parel, Lower Parel and other areas, where the population of Maharashtrians is reducing, thanks to the real estate projects in the area - many of which are by Gujarati builders.
Gujarat not model state
Rane, for the past few days, has been targeting Gujarat. Earlier, he had tweeted against Gujarat and its residents, "One sees an increase of cars with the number plate âGJ' more than âMH'. This has been contributed by builders selling flats only to a certain community!"
Speaking to mid-day, Rane said, "I am fighting for the Marathi cause. When they (Gujarati) want people from their community to grow, I also want the Marathis to grow. I will be approaching the Registrar of societies and ask him to implement reservation for Marathis." He further added that Maharashtrians didn't get homes in places like Parel and Lalbaug as they are discriminated on account of being non-vegetarians.
This reporter spoke to builders, all of whom refused to come on record, fearing a backlash. Said a builder, "We are here to do business; we sell flats to anyone who can pay for them. We are not the public sector to have such reservations. Even MHADA doesn't have reservations for Marathi people. How can anyone expect us to give region based reservations?"
