Maha Cabinet asks Backward Panel to take survey over quota

New Delhi: The Maharashtra Cabinet on Tuesday made a recommendation to the state Backward Commission to undertake a survey and collect data to make the curative petition filed in the Supreme Court “error-free”, so that reservation can be granted to the Maratha community in the state, a minister said.

Chandrakant Patil, head of the state government’s sub-committee on Maratha reservation, gave this information while speaking to reporters here on Tuesday.

“The state Cabinet made a recommendation to the state Backward Commission to undertake necessary surveys and data collection to make the government’s curative petition in the Supreme Court error-free. With this, the state can contest vigorously in favour of awarding reservation benefits to the Maratha community in the state,” he said. The Cabinet also asked the commission to deploy all the required state machinery and rope in private institutions like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for this task, Patil said.

The Supreme Court had also rejected the revision petition in the past, he said.

“But the Supreme Court has now accepted the Maharashtra government’s curative petition, and it is inclined to conduct its hearing in the near future. It is the last chance for us to retain the quota (for the Maratha community),” he said.

In November 2018, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for the Maratha community. But in May 2021, the Supreme Court struck down the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, saying it breached the 50 per cent reservation limit.

Internet services have been suspended in Maharashtra’s Jalna district in view of violent incidents in the Marathwada region during the ongoing agitation seeking reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education, police said on Tuesday. The district is also the site of an indefinite fast launched by Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange last week in support of the reservation demand.

Curfew continued and Internet services remained suspended in central Maharashtra’s Beed district on Tuesday though there were no fresh incidents of violence on account of the Maratha quota agitation, a senior official said.

Earlier, as many as 49 persons were arrested and curfew was imposed in parts of the district on Monday evening following incidents of violence and arson targeting the houses and offices of political leaders as the quota agitation intensified. The Nanded collector has prohibited agitations on roads and highways in the district in central Maharashtra.