Maharashtra govt partially accepts Maratha quota demands

The state cabinet on Wednesday came out with a solution to end the Maratha leader Manoj Jarangersquos nineday fast for the quota One of the decisions is to give Marathas who were notified as Kunbis in the erstwhile Nizam state the Other Backward Class OBC concessions The second was to form a panel headed by a retired high court judge to decide the process of certification of Marathas in Marathwada as Kunbis based on the generational documentary evidenceJarange had promised government representatives to declare his decision to end or continue the fast on Thursday morning But a couple of hours before Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced the decisions Jarange had given the government an ultimatum that the certification GR government resolution could be issued in a dayChief Minister Eknath Shinde Wednesday was the tenth day of Manoj Jarangersquos fast PicTwitterShinde said the GRs for both solutions would be issued on Wednesday night and the committee would submit its report including standard operating procedures for certification within a month Justice retd Sandeep Shinde will head the fivemember committee The existing panel of the additional chief secretary would assist the main panel However Jarangersquos demand to restore the quota in education and jobs for all Marathas would have to wait though he demanded that an ordinance be issued immediately He demanded to withdraw police cases against the protesters or else take the communityrsquos complaint against the policeWednesday was the tenth day of Jarangersquos fast Last weekend the police had lathi charged the protesters giving the stir a dramatic turn Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had apologised on behalf of the government for the lathi chargeAlso read Bombay HC dismisses PIL against Eknath Shindeled Senas Dussehra rallyThe protest now spread across the state has thrown the government a challenge because including the protesters in the OBC quota would mean inviting the wrath of other communities within the category The other option explored mdash giving a separate quota to Marathas mdash was scrapped by the Supreme Court as it breached the cap of 50 per cent social reservationslsquoWill give datarsquoldquoThe government should not ask for four days or a month to give Marathas a certification of Kunbi We will give the government all the data The government should come here and collect itrdquo Jarange said during a media conference in Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district on Wednesday Shinde said the government would procure data provided by the community Shindersquos representatives Arjun Khotkar and Rajesh Tope local MLAs of NCP met Jarange to convey the CMrsquos message The CM said that the record of revenue and educational documents would be verified for giving Marathas a certificate of KunbisldquoThe government can seek the Governorrsquos permission to promulgate an ordinance in just one day The data we will be giving will suffice to make it stand the legal scrutiny Actually we want to save the time of a government committee that has done nothing in the last three monthsrdquo said Jarange earlier in the day while issuing a veiled warning to the government that the protest could not be held responsible if it continued in case of the governmentrsquos failureKunbis OBCs upsetThe state cabinetrsquos decision to certify a section of Marathas from Marathwada as Kunbis as they were in the erstwhile Nizam state has led to resentment among the OBCs especially the existing Kunbis because they fear the new entrants will share their 27 per cent quotaOBC organisations cried foul over the decisions They threatened a massive counterprotest saying that individuals could be certified as Kunbis but not all could be given that facility in one stroke through Wednesdayrsquos decisionPresident of the National OBC Mahasangh Babanrao Taywade questioned the mass certification ldquoThe existing Kunbis will not tolerate this The other OBC castes too are worried We will stage an agitation bigger than this Maratha protestrdquo he said from Nagpur The officebearers of the Kunbi Sena too were agitated Its founder V Patil decried the move threatening a protestAsked about it Manoj Jarange appealed to the Kunbis that they were brothers to Marathas ldquoWe are one Please donrsquot fall prey to what people have been saying We together can go ahead hand in handrdquo Jarange saidIn the 58 long marches the Kunbis who are certified as either MarathaKunbis or KunbiMaratha and get the OBC concession too had participated in solidarity with the Marathas with whom they share relations ethos and pathos