Maratha leaders demand immediate action, withdrawal of all cases against protesters

The Maratha community leaders also opposed the government’s announcement, that non-serious cases against protesters will be withdrawn but not the serious cases.

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Fadnavis, who held an all-party meeting on the Maratha reservation issue on Saturday, also said a special session of state legislature will be convened. (Photo: Arul Horizon)

Minutes after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government has asked the State Commission for Backward Classes to expedite its report on the extent of social backwardness of the Maratha community, leaders of the Maratha Kranti Morcha rejected his contention and said they will not accept anything short of a special session of the legislature.

“Enough of promises… The government should act now. It should immediately convene a special session of the legislature,” said Manoj Aakhare, regional president of Sambhaji Brigade, which is part of the Maratha Kranti Morcha.
Aakhare said he has spoken to members of the commission, and they had told him that it will take another three months for the commission to submit its report. “This means the report will be ready by November, close to the winter session of the legislature… so, what is the point, “ he said.

Fadnavis, who held an all-party meeting on the Maratha reservation issue on Saturday, also said a special session of state legislature will be convened. Aakhare said the community wanted the government to pass a Bill to accord OBC status to the Maratha community during the special session. “In the earlier ordinance passed by the Prithviraj Chavan-led government and the Act introduced by the Fadnavis government, 16 per cent reservation was given to the Maratha community without giving OBC reservation,” he said.

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Aakhare said OBC status can be accorded to the Maratha community based on the report of the Khatri Commission, which had granted OBC status to Maratha-Kunbhi and Kunbhi-Maratha. “After the Khatri Commission report, the government issued a GR, granting OBC status to these two groups. Now, the government can amend the GR by removing the hyphen and putting an oblique sign… this will mean all Maratha groups are in the OBC category,” he said.

Another Maratha leader, Maruti Bhapkar, said in the special session, the government should pass a resolution, to urge the Centre to pass a law regarding increasing the current reservation of 52 per cent by 16 per cent. “Since it will require three-fourths majority and all parties are ready to support it, there should no problem in effecting a constitutional amendment, “ he said.

The Maratha community leaders also opposed the government’s announcement, that non-serious cases against protesters will be withdrawn but not the serious cases. “In fact, cases should be filed against the Chief Minister and his party colleagues for making inflammatory statements that fulled the agitation further, “ said Aakhare and Bhapkar.

Manoj Dattatrye More

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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