<p>Mumbai: As the hunger strike by OBC community leaders - Prof Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare entered the eighth day, a new delegation of the Maharashtra government is expected to meet them on Friday. </p><p>On Thursday, Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder-President Prakash Ambedkar met him at at the protest site off Datta Mandir at Wadigodri village in Ambad tehsil of Jalna district. </p><p>From the protest site, an emotional Wadettiwar, who is a senior OBC leader, dialled Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on his mobile phone and spoke to him.</p>.Man kills himself demanding quota for Marathas under OBC category.<p>Shinde assured that on Friday a government team would meet the agitators. </p><p>Prof Hake, former member of Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission and Waghmare, the president of Samata Parishad’s Jalna unit, have been on hunger strike since 13 June. </p><p>Before Prof Hake launched his agitation, he said: “We are committed to continue with our protest until we are given a written assurance by the state government assuring that our existing 29 per cent OBC reservation will remain intact”.</p><p>It may be mentioned that OBC leaders including state’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Wadettiwar had been opposing dilution of OBC quota.</p><p>In February, the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024, was passed in the state legislature, paving the way for 10 per cent reservation.</p><p>Last year, the government, in a parallel exercise, had also searched for Kunbi-Maratha and Maratha-Kunbi records and as per Jarange-Patil’s claims 57 lakh records have been found. Kunbis form a sub-caste of the Maratha and covered under OBCs - and thus the certificates would enable them to get reservation in jobs and education. </p><p>However, Jarange-Patil’s demand is to declare the Marathas as Kunbis and grant separate quotas from the OBCs, plus the formal notification of the ‘sage-soyare’, a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree', which widened the scope of the quota. </p>
<p>Mumbai: As the hunger strike by OBC community leaders - Prof Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare entered the eighth day, a new delegation of the Maharashtra government is expected to meet them on Friday. </p><p>On Thursday, Leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar of the Congress and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi founder-President Prakash Ambedkar met him at at the protest site off Datta Mandir at Wadigodri village in Ambad tehsil of Jalna district. </p><p>From the protest site, an emotional Wadettiwar, who is a senior OBC leader, dialled Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on his mobile phone and spoke to him.</p>.Man kills himself demanding quota for Marathas under OBC category.<p>Shinde assured that on Friday a government team would meet the agitators. </p><p>Prof Hake, former member of Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission and Waghmare, the president of Samata Parishad’s Jalna unit, have been on hunger strike since 13 June. </p><p>Before Prof Hake launched his agitation, he said: “We are committed to continue with our protest until we are given a written assurance by the state government assuring that our existing 29 per cent OBC reservation will remain intact”.</p><p>It may be mentioned that OBC leaders including state’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Wadettiwar had been opposing dilution of OBC quota.</p><p>In February, the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024, was passed in the state legislature, paving the way for 10 per cent reservation.</p><p>Last year, the government, in a parallel exercise, had also searched for Kunbi-Maratha and Maratha-Kunbi records and as per Jarange-Patil’s claims 57 lakh records have been found. Kunbis form a sub-caste of the Maratha and covered under OBCs - and thus the certificates would enable them to get reservation in jobs and education. </p><p>However, Jarange-Patil’s demand is to declare the Marathas as Kunbis and grant separate quotas from the OBCs, plus the formal notification of the ‘sage-soyare’, a Marathi term for ‘relatives from the family tree', which widened the scope of the quota. </p>