No certificates for all Marathas as Kunbis, govt assures OBC leaders

Chief minister Eknath Shinde, his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and senior cabinet ministers held a meeting with several OBC outfits in Mumbai. After accepting all their demands, Shinde announced that DCM Devendra Fadnavis will visit Chandrapur and Nagpur, where relay protests are on

MUMBAI: Outfits belonging to the Other Backward Class (OBC) community, who are upset over government’s assurance to Marathas as Kunbis on the basis of the Nizam era records, were assured by the state government on Friday that their quota would not be compromised, as not all Marathas will be issued Kunbi certificates.

Thane, India - November 07, 2022: Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde speaks during the Konkan Festival event, at Savarkar Nagar, Wagle Estate, in Thane, Mumbai, India, on Monday, November 07, 2022. (Praful Gangurde/ HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

Chief minister Eknath Shinde, his deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and senior cabinet ministers held a meeting with several OBC outfits in Mumbai. After accepting all their demands, Shinde announced that DCM Devendra Fadnavis will visit Chandrapur and Nagpur, where relay protests are on, on Saturday to appeal to community activists to call off their strike.

“We are not in favour of reducing reservation to any class. Efforts are on to restore Maratha reservation without disturbing the OBC quota. There is no question of inclusion of the all Marathas in this category. We will ensure adequate budgetary allocation to the OBCs as well,” Shinde said after the three-hour-long meeting.

Babanrao Taywade, national president, Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, said all 22 demands were accepted. “The government assured reservation for Marathas as Kunbis to only those who have Nizam era records. We have no objection to it. We were informed that of over 10 million records scrutinized by the Sandeep Shinde committee, only 5000 show Kunbi as a sub-caste,” he said.

After the meeting, BJP leader Ashish Deshmukh said, “We have no objection to accord them reservation but the government has not assured a blanket reservation to Marathas.”

Meanwhile, OBC organisations have moved Nagpur bench of Bombay high court demanding scrapping of the committee appointed by the government under retired justice Sandeep Shinde.

Pawar-Bhujbal spat

An altercation between DCM Ajit Pawar and his party colleague, food and civil supplies minister Chhagan Bhujbal, occurred during the meeting, over funds allocation to OBCs and representation of Marathas in government jobs. Bhujbal presented data showing under-representation of OBCs, VJNTs, SCs and STs, and over representation of Marathas. He also slammed the government over poor funds for OBCs. Pawar countered his argument, saying there was no official data to prove this.