Shinde Committee meets to frame action-plan for reservation of Marathas as Kunbis in Maha

The Devara Committee has handed over data on Marathas as Kunbis from the Nizam era to the Shinde Committee, which will issue Kunbi certificates. The Shinde Committee is expected to submit its report in three to four weeks.

MUMBAI: The Devara Committee, constituted in May 2023, to collate the records of Marathas as Kunbis from the Nizam era, has handed over the composite data to the Shinde Committee, which held its first meeting in Mantralaya on Monday. The Shinde Committee was established on September 7 to decide the methodology to issue Kunbi certificates to the community members.

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The report runs well over 40 lakh pages; the data was collated the committee headed by additional chief secretary Rajgopal Devara. The committee was constituted in earlier this year after Maratha activist Manoj Jarange-Patil created a stir in political circles with his protests in the districts, which intensified with his indefinite hunger strike earlier this month. When it escalated from September 1, the state government replaced the Devara Committee with Shinde Committee.

The Shinde Committee, helmed by retired justice Sandeep Shinde, also comprises additional chief secretary of revenue department, principal secretary of law and judiciary department, divisional commissioner of Aurangabad and collectors from the central Maharashtra districts. It is expected to meet regularly over the next couple of weeks.

Speaking about the documents, a Devara Committee insider said, “The castes of the community members are aligned with their profession such as farming, cobbling etc. The professions have been mentioned as their surname, and hence determining their castes will be easy.” In some of the documents, the population of the Kunbis in Nizam era have been reported to be 38%. However, the voluminous documents are not “sufficient to consider all Marathas as Kunbi”.

The Shinde Committee is expected to submit the report in three to four weeks. “The chairman wants some more information, which will have to be obtained from Hyderabad; a team of the officers is expected to visit the city for it. It will require five to six weeks thereafter, to finalise the methodology for verifications,” another officer said.

“The documents collated from the Nizam era revealed that the neighbouring Telangana has records of reservation given to the Marathas as OBC in that state. Once Maharashtra admits them as Kunbis, similar demands will come from Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh as well,” the officer added.