Now, State forms panel on Dhangar quota

The Maharashtra government has set up a panel to study the demand for reservation benefits for the Dhangar community under the Scheduled Tribes category. The panel will study the laws and methods used by three states and gather relevant documents. Currently, the Dhangar community receives 3.5% reservation under the Nomadic Tribes category and is demanding an increase to 7%. The panel has been given three months to submit its report. This decision comes in addition to a 13-member committee formed earlier to speed up the implementation of welfare schemes for the Dhangar community.

Mumbai: Amid a rift over reservation between Maratha and Other Backward Classes (OBC), the Maharashtra government on Monday decided to set up a panel to look into the demand for giving reservation benefits to the Dhangar or shephard community under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.

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The nine-member study group headed by Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, has been given the task to study the laws and methods invoked by three states—Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Telangana—and to do the same.

The Dhangar community has been demanding reservations under the ST category, which will increase their quota to 7%. Currently, they are getting 3.5% reservation under the Nomadic Tribes (C) category.

Additionally, the group, which will have to submit the report in three months, has been asked to study how these states handled the legal scrutiny and gather relevant documents from them. The OBC welfare department issued a government resolution to this effect on Monday.

The decision to set up the panel is in addition to a 13-member empowered committee formed under chief minister Eknath Shinde on November 8 to speed up the implementation of 13 dedicated welfare schemes for the Dhangar community.

“The study group shall study the methods used by Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Telangana to provide caste certificate and reservation benefits to a few particular communities under the Scheduled Tribes category,” states the government resolution issued on Monday.

“It will have to study the law under which the reservation benefits were extended. While doing the same, they will have to gather concerned documents and details on how they dealt with the court cases. The study group will also have to meet representatives of the communities and collect documents from them,” it adds.

The decision is likely to upset the community, who were expecting their demand for reservation to be fulfilled by the end of this month. On September 26, the state sought 50 days to fulfill their demands.

Senior BJP minister Girish Mahajan to convince Dhangar activists Suresh Bandgar and Annasaheb Rupnavar to call off their 21-day long indefinite hunger strike, assured that their demands would be fulfilled in 50 days and a letter signed by Anshu Sinha, secretary, OBC welfare department was also handed over to them.

Dhangar in Maharashtra consider themselves as ‘Dhangads’, who get reservations under the ST category in many other states, and for many years they have been demanding their inclusion in the same category that will help them to get reservations up to 7%.

Traditionally, Shepherd, the community has made several agitations in the past and revived the protest once again to get what they believe is theirs.

In the run-up to the state assembly elections 2014, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as the then Maharashtra BJP president, promised the community to provide reservations in the first cabinet meeting after coming to power. Instead, the government appointed the Tata Institute of Social Studies (TISS) to study the backwardness of the community and check if Dhangars in the state is the same as ‘Dhangads’. A year later, TISS submitted its report saying that the two communities have no similarity.