E-Paper
Why ‘Gujarati’ is causing trouble for some ‘Patidars’ in Madhya Pradesh?
The Patidar community, known as ‘Gujarati’ Patidars in certain parts of Madhya Pradesh, is not getting the benefits of reservation under Other Backward Class (OBC) category despite being listed as OBC in the state, claimed a community leader Mahendra Patidar while talking to HT.
The Patidar community, known as ‘Gujarati’ Patidars in certain parts of Madhya Pradesh, is not getting the benefits of reservation under Other Backward Class (OBC) category despite being listed as OBC in the state, claimed a community leader Mahendra Patidar while talking to HT.
“Nearly 40,000 Patidars in three districts — Bhopal, Sehore and Rajgarh — who had migrated from Gujarat long back and suffixed ‘Gujarati’ with their names in the revenue records are not getting reservation benefits. Such Patidars are not being granted OBC certificates despite our repeated requests and representations before the authorities,” said Mahendra, who is also the state president of Madhya Pradesh Patidar Samaj Sangathan.
A procession of Patidar community members was taken out from Misrod town to the Yadgar-e-Shahjehani Park in Bhopal. They pledged support to the agitation led by Hardik Patel under the banner of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS).
Talking to the HT, Mahendra said if Patidars from these three districts were not granted the reservation benefits under OBC, they would start an agitation across the state and he would himself fast unto death from October 2.
There are roughly 40 lakh Patidars in the state primarily concentrated in districts like Khargone, Sehore, Rajgarh, Dhar Agar, Shajapur, Badwani, Bhopal, Ujjain and Indore, he added.
Some of the Patidar leaders even want to dissociate with the name ‘Gujarati’ because of which they are losing the reservation benefits.
“We want the government to recognise us as Patidars and keep the word ‘Gujarati’ in the bracket if they want to keep it in the revenue records,” he said.
Leader of the Patidar community in Bhopal, Manohar Jagidar told HT that they want the suffixed name dissociated so that they start getting the benefits of reservation.
“The reason why the government is not providing OBC certificate to Patidars in the three districts is because in 1984, the ‘Gujarati’ word was suffixed to the name of the Patidars in the revenue records. In the convention of Patidar community at Shujalpur in May 2013 chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had promised that a gazette notification would be issued soon, but till date no notification has been issued despite many representations on our part,” he said.
