Govt starts issuing Kunbi caste certificate to eligible community members

The development comes a day after the state government published an order asking officials concerned to issue fresh Kunbi caste certificates to eligible Maratha community members, paving the way for them to avail reservation benefits under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.

The distribution was carried out in various districts of the state. Many of the beneficiaries, however, demanded that while they had received the caste certificate based on their genealogy records, the state government should do away with the process and give reservations to each and every member of the Maratha community. One such beneficiary was Sumit Mane from Kari village in Osmanabad district who was handed over his caste certificate by Dharashiv district collector Sachin Ombase on Wednesday.

Mane, an activist seeking Maratha reservation, however, burned his certificate soon after stepping out of the Collector’s office stating that the government should give blanket reservations to the community.

“It is our demand that the entire community needs to be given reservation. If the government does not do so, then we are unwilling to take these certificates,” Mane said. The Maharashtra government had last month issued a Government Resolution with a decision that Kunbi caste certificates will be issued to those Marathas hailing from Marathwada region who possess revenue or education documents from the Nizam era that recognise them as Kunbis.

Dharashiv collector Ombase said the committee headed by former judge Justice Sandeep Shinde formed to allot Kunbi certificates to Marathas having the Nizam era (pre-1967 period) documents showing them as Kunbi in revenue and government documents had visited different parts of Marathwada to look for the documents.