CM Shinde was ready for survey, Fadnavis wasn't: Maharashtra Backward Class panel member days after resigning

B L Killarikar. File Pic/Internet

A member of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, who recently resigned from it along with a few others, Tuesday accused the government of interfering in the panel's functioning.

B L Killarikar, who resigned as a member of the commission, also said that while Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was ready for conducting a large-scale survey of communities in the state, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was not in its favour, newswire PTI reported.

Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra legislative assembly Vijay Wadettiwar earlier alleged that members of the state Backward Class Commission were being threatened and forced to resign. He further informed the House that its chairman justice Anand Nirgude (retired) has also stepped down.

"The government tried to interfere (in the functioning of the commission) as it said that the affidavits, which were to be submitted in various quota-related cases in the Bombay High Court and which were finalised by the commission, should be checked by the Advocate General and the state. It said that nothing should be mentioned in the affidavit that will land the government in trouble," Killarikar told reporters in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

The chairman and secretary of the commission were asked to get the affidavits checked by the Advocate General and the government which intervened in the authority of the commission. This is the key issue of resignation, member B L Killarikar who recently resigned from the OBC commission told reporters in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on Tuesday.

"This was interference in the authority of the commission. It was an attempt to deny independence to the commission. This was a key issue behind resignations," he said.

He also said the government was not ready to undertake a large-scale survey of the communities in the state which would help the commission to decide the quota for different communities.

"When the commission decides proposals related to reservation, that time it needs detailed data of communities in the state. With the help of this data only, the commission takes a decision on providing reservation," Killarikar said.

Also read: Resignations in Maharashtra Backward Class Commission due to govt pressure: Opposition

Such large-scale data was not available with the commission. So, on August 12, 2022, the commission unanimously passed a resolution and demanded Rs 400 crore from the government to make such data available. With the help of this kind of data, reservation issues in the state and cases before the judiciary would have been decided. But the state government did not respond, he said.

When the issue of Maratha reservation landed before the commission, its chairperson and member secretary were called for meetings (with he government). The discussion was on the lines that instead of surveying all the communities, the survey should be conducted in a restricted manner. The decision of the Maratha quota should be taken on the basis of the survey data, he said.

"But as the directives of the Supreme Court cannot be fulfilled with this, we demanded a large-scale survey. With the data of social, educational, economic, political representation of communities, the quota issues would have been resolved," Killarikar added.

CM Shinde was ready for the survey, but Fadnavis was not, he said.

"The commission chairperson said during the meeting that the chief minister was ready for a wider scale survey of communities in Maharashtra. But we came to know that Fadnavis had raised a little objection to it...Fadnavis said that the survey should be limited and should be conducted by the Gokhale Institute. But we can't tell the politics behind that," he said. (With inputs from PTI)