MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Legislature on Tuesday unanimously passed a Bill providing 10 per cent reservation for the Maratha community in education and government jobs.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tabled the Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Bill 2024 in the Legislative Assembly during the day-long special session of the Legislature on Maratha quota.
The backwardness of the Maratha class is distinct and different from backward classes and, more particularly, OBC in the sense that it is more pervasive in terms of its coverage, it differs in its penetration and further regressive in character, the Bill said.
The Maratha quota Bill also proposed that once the reservation comes into effect, its review could be taken after 10 years.
After tabling the Bill in the House, CM Shinde said as many as 22 states in the country have crossed the 50 per cent reservation mark.
“We want to give reservation to the Maratha community without touching the existing quota of the OBCs in the state. The Marathas have been struggling for the last 40 years to get reservation benefits,” the CM said.
The Bill was later also passed unanimously in the state legislative council.
It will now be sent to Governor Ramesh Bais for his assent.
Maharashtra cabinet minister Chhagan Bhujbal has been opposing the “backdoor entry” of Marathas into the OBC quota, but is in favour of a separate reservation for the community.
Notably, the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission on Friday submitted a report on its survey on the social, economic, and educational backwardness of the Maratha community.
One of the key findings in the Bill tabled by CM Shinde underscores that the population of the Maratha community in the state is 28 per cent.
Out of the total Maratha families that are below the poverty line, 21.22 per cent hold the yellow ration cards. It is higher than the state’s average of 17.4 per cent.