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This is an archive article published on August 1, 2018

Shiv Sena backs 5% quota for Muslims in education, AIMIM hails ‘positive’ move

Despite HC directive, Fadnavis govt not implementing quota for Muslims in education, says AIMIM

Sena backs 5% quota for Muslims in education, AIMIM hails ‘positive’ move “Apart from the Marathas, reservation demands of Dhangars, Muslims and other communities should also be taken into account,” said Uddhav Thackeray.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Tuesday welcomed the Shiv Sena’s support to reservation for Muslims in education. The party criticised the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, which, it said, was defying the Bombay High Court’s order by not implementing the 5 per cent quota for Muslims.

At a press conference on Monday, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had said: “Apart from the Marathas, reservation demands of Dhangars, Muslims and other communities should also be taken into account.” Thackeray added that his party would support the state and the Union government on the issue.

About reservation for Muslims, Uddhav said if there were reasonable demands from the Muslim community, they should also be considered.

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Welcoming the Sena’s stand, AIMIM MLA Imtiaz Jaleel said: “It is a positive development. The BJP should take a cue… Some BJP leaders, through their acts and utterances, are targeting Muslims,” he said.

Jaleel said 5 per cent reservation demand for the Muslim community has received the Bombay High Court’s support. “While rejecting the demands of the Maratha community for OBC status, the high court had allowed 5 per cent reservation for Muslims. In case of the Maratha community, the court had rejected the move and called for setting up of a Backward Classes Commission. In Muslims’ case, the court has supported the quota in education based on circumstantial evidence. However, it is highly regrettable that the state government is yet to implement the HC directive,” he said.

Jaleel said the Bombay High Court’s move meant a lot for Muslim youths. “The court order is significant as it aims at removing the educational backwardness of the community. A large number of youths, because of lack of proper education, have to take up menial jobs. It is time Muslim youths get higher education, which will result in better jobs and improvement in their living standards. Every effort should be made to remove educational backwardness of the community,” he said.

Jaleel said his party was planning to launch an agitation to demand a job quota for Muslims. “An announcement to this effect will be made soon,” he said.

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A BJP leader said the Congress-NCP government had in 2014 issued an ordinance giving 5 per cent reservation in jobs for Muslims. “The ordinance, however, lapsed on December 23, 2014, after which the government scrapped the resolution,” said a BJP leader.

In June 2014, the Congress-NCP government had approved 16 per cent reservation for Marathas and five per cent for Muslims. On November 14, 2014, the high court had put an stay on 16 per cent reservation for Marathas. “The court had also stayed the decision to provide a five per cent job quota to Muslims in government services, but it allowed quotas for them in educational institutions,” said Jaleel.

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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