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This is an archive article published on August 12, 2024

Modi Govt should increase overall reservation beyond 50% ceiling, we’ll extend support: Sharad Pawar

Sharad Pawar calls on CM Eknath Shinde to convene an all-party meeting on Maratha reservation and also invite people like Manoj Jarange-Patil and Chhagan Bhujbal to it.

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. (File Photo)NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar. (File Photo)

A day after his convoy was blocked and black flags were waved at him by Maratha quota protesters, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar said on Monday that if the Central Government decided to increase reservation beyond the 50 per cent ceiling, all parties in Maharashtra would support the Centre on the issue.

“The Central Government has the power to cross the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation… If the Modi Government decides to provide reservation to the Maratha community, we will extend support to it,” Pawar said at a press conference in Pune.

Urging Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to convene an all-party meeting on the reservation issue, Pawar said, “I have in the past held discussion with the chief minister regarding the reservation issue. I now want to urge the chief minister to convene an all-party meeting. He can invite whoever he wants. We as the Opposition will remain present at the meeting. I have already told him that we will take a stand to support the Government. I hope the CM will hold such a meeting and invite representatives of key national parties.”

Pawar said the chief minister should also invite Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil and OBC leaders like Chhagan Bhujbal, among others. “At that meeting we should discuss the reservation issue and try to find a way to resolve it,” he said.

Pawar said one problem that could emerge was the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation imposed by the Supreme Court. “When the Tamil Nadu government had given 73 per cent reservation, it was upheld by the court. However, after all subsequent decisions, the courts have upheld the reservation ceiling of 50 per cent. This policy should change. The right to change the policy lies with the Modi Government. All the political parties in Maharashtra will sink their differences and support the Modi Government if it decides to change the policy. We will cooperate and stand by the Government in this respect,” he 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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