On a day when the Maharashtra state backward class commission submitted its report on social and educational backwardness of the Maratha community, its former member Judge (retired) Chandralal Meshram, who was removed from the commission two days ago, on Friday claimed neither the data collected during the survey nor the final report was shown to members before submission. The commission’s chairman Justice (retired) Sunil Shukre, however, refuted the claims saying “each member was assigned with a specific job” and termed it unfortunate that the “former member who was away from the work was making such claims”. “A committee to write the report was formed of which I was one of the members. Not a single meeting of that committee was held. We were told that since the report was to be filed within a stipulated time, he (Shukre) said he will be writing it alone. What was the need of the committee then,” asked Meshram. He further claimed members of the commission were also not given the opportunity to read the report. “They were only asked to sign the report at the last moment,” he said. Questioning the method of survey, Meshram asked whether the answers recorded should be considered authentic. “Government employees have recorded the answers given by residents. What’s the guarantee that it is all true,” he asked. The former member claimed he was frequently making submissions about his objections in writing. “Otherwise, people will ask me, why I did not speak earlier?” he said. Shukre, however, denied his claims. “Each member of the commission was assigned with a specific job, without any exception. He (Meshram) himself has travelled to many districts for the work. We worked as a team,” Shukre said. He added, “There was no question of hiding anything from anyone. In fact it is Meshram who was away from the commission’s work and it is unfortunate that he is making such claims now.” Another commission member Nilima Lakhade said all members were present while submitting the report to the state government. “There is no truth that we were kept in dark,” she said. Another member Govind Kale declined to comment but said that every member had a job carved out and completed it. Meanwhile, Meshram maintained that the commission has lost the opportunity to rectify the mistakes made in the previous M G Gaikwad commission report which was rejected by the Supreme Court. “It was an opportunity for us to avoid past mistakes. Giving reservation to Marathas eyeing election which will not survive in the court. Again, to tell them that we will continue to try for reservation and repeating the whole exercise, is nothing but absolute fraud against the Maratha community,” he said.
