This is an archive article published on July 21, 2022
Restoration of OBC quota: ‘Banthia panel went through voter lists in 28,000 villages, towns, cities’
The six-member commission headed by Jayant Kumar Banthia, a former chief secretary, was set up by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government this March after the 27 per cent reservation in local self-government bodies was struck down by the Supreme Court.
The OBC community and parties across the political spectrum had then joined hands, urging the MVA government to take necessary steps to get the quota restored.
(representational)
After the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed OBC (Other Backward Class) reservation in the ensuing civic polls in Maharashtra, Mahesh Zagade, a retired IAS officer who was a member of the Jayant Kumar Banthia Commission, said the six-member panel completed the arduous task of collating data on the community in a short period of time.
“The panel submitted its report to the Supreme Court on July 7. We had gone through the voters’ lists in as many as 28,000 villages, cities and towns before arriving at the conclusion that the OBC community should be given 27 per cent reservation (in the civic polls),” Zagade told The Indian Express after the SC ruled that the local body elections should be announced in two weeks, with OBC reservation.
The six-member commission headed by Jayant Kumar Banthia, a former chief secretary, was set up by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government this March after the 27 per cent reservation in local self-government bodies was struck down by the Supreme Court. The apex court had argued that there was insufficient data on the OBCs. The court rejected the report of the Backward Class Commission, directing the state government to get fresh data on the OBCs collated.
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The OBC community and parties across the political spectrum had then joined hands, urging the MVA government to take necessary steps to get the quota restored.
The commission was tasked with the job of gathering empirical data on the OBCs. The panel was also told to arrive at a quantum of reservation for the OBCs in the local self-government bodies.
Zagade said the panel had recommended that reservation should be given in proportion to the population in each local body, like municipal councils, municipal corporations, Zilla Parishads and panchayat samitis. “While recommending reservation in proportion to the population in every local self-government body, the panel made it clear that it should be done without affecting the statutory reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” he said, adding that the panel ensured that total reservation should not exceed the stipulated 50 per cent mark as ordained by the Supreme Court.
Zagade said since the panel had recommended that OBC reservation be given depending on the proportion of the community in the total population, in some local self-government bodies, there will be zero OBC reservation. “In areas where there is hardly any OBC population, local civic bodies will have no reservation. In some tribal areas, where there are more number of tribals and SCs, the OBCs are unlikely to find representation if their numbers are limited,” he said.
“We found that the Backward Class of Citizens (BCC), which includes the OBCs, did not have adequate political reservation, thus affecting their right in the decision-making process. Hence, we recommended political reservation for them,” Zagade said.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More
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