THOUGH CHIEF Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said Maratha community’s long-pending demand for 16 per cent reservation in jobs and education will be implemented in December, a legislation in this regard is only likely to be adopted in the Budget Session of the Assembly in March next year, sources in the government said on Saturday.
“Even if the government wished to bring a law, it will be a long drawn process,” said a source in the state legal department. The two-week Winter Session of the Assembly commencing from Monday does not provide the time required to thoroughly study and process the legislation, he added.
“The ruling and Opposition parties would will like to have a thorough debate on the Maratha reservation. There are leaders representing OBCs, urging the government not to make any hasty decision on the Maratha quota,” an official said. The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, while concluding that the Maratha community is socio-economically backward, thus clearing its way for quota, has categorically stated in its report that the existing 27 per cent OBC reservation should not be altered in any manner.
“Kunbhi Marathas in Vidarbha and parts of north Maharashtra are availing at least eight per cent reservation from our existing quota. Will the government remove them our our quota,” asked OBC Kranti Parishad leader Anil Mahajan.
The Congress and NCP leaders also want a thorough debate on the commission’s report. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and Congress veteran Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said, “The report should have been first adopted in the cabinet and then brought to the Assembly for a debate. Instead, the report was leaked to the media. The government has to explain who leaked the report.”