Three districts will have no OBC reservation, 12 to get 27%

The apex court on Wednesday approved the Banthia commission report and gave go-ahead for holding the elections with the OBC quota

Mumbai: Even as the State Election Commission (SEC) has started the process to accord up to 27% reservation to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the ensuing local body polls after the Supreme Court’s verdict on Wednesday, the reservation for the community has reduced to zero in three districts and is less than 20% in another nine districts. In a few municipal corporations like Thane, Mira Bhayander, and Parbhani it has significantly reduced.

(PTI)

The apex court on Wednesday approved the Banthia commission report and gave go-ahead for holding the elections with the OBC quota. The commission report, however, ascertained the percentage in local bodies based on the population of the OBCs. The report has given a break of the percentage of the OBC in each of the local bodies in rural and urban parts of the state.

Accordingly, in 27 municipal corporations, the OBCs will have 672 seats reserved for them from a total of 2,736 seats with the overall percentage standing at 24.56%. The lowest reservation is in Thane at 10.4% followed by 17.9% in Parbhani in central Maharashtra, 18.4% in Mira-Bhayander and 20.5% in Navi Mumbai. Nine municipal corporations have less than 27% reservation.

In rural areas, three district councils that represent districts will have no representation for OBC because of the high percentage of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) population that get the reservation in proportion to their proportion. Gadchiroli, Palghar and Nandurbar will have no reservation for the OBCs.

Dhule and Nashik, against tribal-dominated districts, will have 4.1% and 3.9% reservations for OBCs. Seven other districts have less than 20% reservation while only 12 rural districts will have a full 27% reservation for the class of people.

Of the total 2,000 seats in 34 district councils, 398 or only 19.90% of seats will be reserved for the OBCs in these rural bodies.

As many as 27 of 34 district councils, 22 of 27 municipal corporations, over 300 nagar panchayat and municipal councils and over 290 panchayat samitis are scheduled to go to polls later this year. Over 80% of the state population will vote in these local body polls, which are also touted as mini assembly elections.

Chandrakant Bavkar, president, OBC Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, said that they have disapproved of the Banthia commission report and demanded a review in places where the quota is less than 27%.

“We met chief minister Eknath Shinde and demanded that until the caste-based census is not done we should get at least 27% reservation. There are flaws in the Banthia commission report figures of population. In many districts like Ratnagiri and Thane, the OBC population has been shown much lesser than the actual figure.”

Until the quota was stayed in March 2021 by the SC for the want of a triple test, the OBCs were getting 27% reservations in local body polls.

Sachin Rajurkar General Secretary of Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh said that though they are happy with the restoration of the quota, their demand for constitutional amendment continues.

“We will press for the amendment to breach the cap of 50% quota so that we could get the reservation in the proportion of our population. We have been getting a full 27% reservation in local body polls until it was scrapped by the SC last year. Now it is up to 27%, reducing substantially low in some districts,” he said.