State plans to adopt a provision in Hyderabad gazette to facilitate Kunbi certificates for Marathas

In response to Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil's hunger strike, Maharashtra seeks Telangana's gazetteer documents to support Kunbi certificate claims for OBC status.

Mumbai: In response to the indefinite hunger strike by Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange Patil, the state government has written a letter to Telangana government for the documents related to Hyderabad gazetteer showing Marathas as kunbis during the Nizam rule.

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The Maratha community believes that it would help the state government in issuing the Kunbi certificates to them as per the demand made by the activists.

Giving Marathas Kunbi caste certificates would mean that they would be counted within the Kunbi community and given the OBC status, they would benefit with the reservation the OBC group gets.

Jarange-Patil began his sixth leg of an indefinite hunger strike from Monday midnight to push his nine demands, including the reservation to Marathas from OBC quota. To facilitate it, he has demanded the implementation of Hyderabad gazetteer which reportedly has recorded Marathas as kunbis during the Nizam era. He has similarly demanded the implementation of the Bombay gazetteer and Satara princely state gazetteer, which have similar records.

Jarange-Patil who has been demanding to issue Kunbi certificates to Marathas by issuing Sage-Soyare (those related by birth and marriage) notification. The state government, which collected over 5.6 million documents related to such records, is in the process of scrutinising the suggestion and objections it received on the draft notification related to Sage Soyare. It has received over 6,50,000 suggestions and objections to the draft notification issued on January 27 this year. In addition to it, the gazetteers are expected to help the government in compiling records related to the kunbi records of Marathas.

“We have written to the Telangana government for the certified copies of the Hyderabad gazetteer. We have asked them to send the certified copies to ensure that they stand the legal scrutiny,” state excise minister and Shiv Sena (led by Eknath Shinde) Shambhuraj Desai said.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde said, “We are working on it and we are determined to keep our word. The committee appointed under retired justices is working on it. We want to give full proof reservation to Marathas.”

Jarange-Patil has however hit out at the government over the delay in fulfilling the demands. “We have been hearing about this (compliance by the committee) for the last six to seven months. It does not take this long. We want the compliance in 2-3 days as it does not need anymore compliance or scrutiny.

Maratha reservation petitioner Balasaheb Sarate Patil said, “The Marathas were recorded as Kunbis during the Nizam era. The state backward classes commission will have to recommend for the implementation of the gazetteer. It is beyond understanding why it has not been sent to commission as yet.”