After a year of agitation, Marathas to get reservations
After over a year of agitations, the Maratha community is set to get reservations in jobs and education, confirmed Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday. The announcement came following the recommendations of a special panel that concluded that Marathas were socially and economically backward. The bill for Maratha reservations will be tabled in the Winter Session of the Legislative Assembly. Here's more.
On Thursday, the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) submitted its report on the social and economic conditions of the Marathas, concluding that they were indeed a backward community. Under the commission's recommendations, the Maharashtra government will create a new category of reservations SEBC (socially and economically backward) under which Marathas will be given reservations.
#Maratha reservation:
— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) November 18, 2018
We received Backward Class Commission report with 3 recommendations.
Independent reservation will be given to Maratha community in SEBC.
We constituted a Cabinet Sub-committee to take statutory steps for implementing the recommendations: CM @Dev_Fadnavis pic.twitter.com/K1jwRDRlND
The Maratha community, which accounts for over 30% of Maharashtra's population, had been agitating for reservations in government jobs and educational institutes since 2017. In August this year, the agitations intensified as thousands of Marathas took the streets. Violence broke out in Pune and Aurangabad resultant of the protests, and mass demonstrations took place in Mumbai and Thane.
The move by the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government is expected to be a game-changer for the upcoming elections in the state, to be held in September 2019. With the Maratha community accounting for over one-third of the electorate, the BJP government can hope to reap significant electoral mileage from the move.
