Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange (Photo: Twitter)
Activist Manoj Jarange, whose indefinite fast over the Maratha quota issue entered its third day on Friday, said the Maharashtra government may convene a special one-day session of the state legislature to grant reservation to the community.
He also said that if extension is given to the committee appointed to devise ways to give reservations to Marathas, the Maharashtra government would conspire not to grant quota to the community.
Jarange was addressing a press conference in his native village of Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district, where he is observing his hunger strike. “We had given 40 days’ time to the government and submitted necessary evidence to prove our stand on the Maratha quota. If they have given extension to the committee looking into this issue, it is a conspiracy because they have not given reservation against Marathas,” he said.
The 40-year-old activist appealed to the leaders of the ruling and opposition parties to stay in their homes and not enter the villages. “If the leaders do not give us reservations and enter our villages, they will come there to disrupt the law and order situation. They should instead go to the legislative assembly and raise their voice for the Maratha reservation. day meeting and subsidy reservation,” Jarange said. People in villages should peacefully deter leaders from visiting, he said, urging people not to commit suicide and continue fighting until reservation is allowed. During their visit to Delhi, the activist wondered why the state heads had not informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the quota agitation in Maharashtra. Jarange had observed a hunger strike in the same village in September demanding that the Maratha community be given reservation in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The protest, which started on August 29, was called off on September 14 after CM Shinde held talks with him. At the time, the activist had set a 40-day deadline (October 24) for the government to allocate quotas. “There remain two to three phases of our agitation. We will wait for the next two days and decide on the further course of action on October 29,” the activist said. The state government has formed a five-member panel headed by Justice Sandeep Shinde (retired) to frame the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), including legal and administrative framework, for granting caste certificates to members of the Maratha community, in the called Kunbis law. Documents from the Nizam era. Kunbis (the community associated with agriculture) are grouped under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in Maharashtra. The Maratha community, led by Jarange, has demanded issuance of Kunbi certificates to Marathas, allowing them to be included in the OBC category for reservation.
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First print: October 27, 2023 | 2:33 PM IST