Maratha reservation: Committee gathers Nizam-era documents from 10,000 families, gets extension of two months
Jarange Patil asked the state government to come for a discussion, a deviation from his previous stand which did not allow leaders to come to Antarwali Saraati village of Jalna district where he relaunched his fast-unto-death five days ago
The committee headed by retired chief justice Sandeep Shinde set up to determine the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), including legal and administrative framework, for giving caste certificates to members of the Maratha community referred to as Kunbis in Nizam-era documents, have so far gathered documents from 10,000 families, according to minister Shambhuraj Desai.
Speaking in Pune on Sunday, Desai said that the committee has now been granted a two-month extension as Telangana State is heading for polls and a code of conduct is in place there as a result the neighbouring state has expressed an inability to authenticate these documents.
“It’s being spread that the government hasn’t done anything in the last 40 days but that is not true. One of Manoj Jarange Patil’s demands was to issue a Nizam-era certificate and the committee set up to collect documents has gathered them from 10,000 people, which needs authentication. Now we have to verify the authenticity and communication is being done with Telangana, where code of conduct is in place and that government has sought time to take a call on this,” said Desai.
Manoj Jarange Patil, a quota activist, however, has countered the government on the issue of buying time to verify these Nizam-era documents. Jarange Patil said, the government had sought time to give Kunbi status to Marathas and constituted a committee to look for evidence.
“We gave them 40 days when the government sought 30 and even provided evidence proving that Marathas and Kunbis are the same. The government now has 10,000 documents and is still not granting reservation and giving extension to the committee. If it’s true then it’s nothing but a conspiracy to not grant reservation and the government does not want to give reservation,” said Jarange Patil, whose health deteriorated on Sunday even as he further intensified agitation and asked the community members to fast unto death in all villages across Maharashtra.
Jarange Patil also asked the state government to come for a discussion, a deviation from his previous stand which did not allow leaders to come to Antarwali Saraati village of Jalna district where he relaunched his fast-unto-death five days ago.
According to Desai, the chief minister Eknath Shinde has in the past few days chaired 23 meetings to discuss various issues related to the Maratha community.
“The government is serious about giving reservation to the Maratha community although it needs to be foolproof. Therefore, efforts are being made in that direction and as a part of it, the committee making attempts to get the documents collected so far verified from Telangana.”
Marathwada region was earlier part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State (Now Telangana) under the Nizam rule before it became part of Maharashtra in 1960. The Nizam rule recognised the rights of Kunbis, a sub-caste within the –Maratha community.
