Maratha quota: Panel examining Nizam-era documents gets extension till December 24 to submit report

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Friday gave an extension till December 24 to the committee, formed to determine the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in order to give Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas, to submit its report.

The development comes in the wake of an indefinite hunger strike launched by activist Manoj Jarange in Jalna district on Wednesday to demand reservation for the Maratha community.

Kunbis (the community associated with agriculture) are grouped under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in Maharashtra. The Maratha community, led by Jarange, has been demanding the issuance of Kunbi certificates to Marathas, enabling them to get inclusion in the OBC category for reservation.

A government resolution (GR) said the committee, headed by retired judge Sandeep Shinde, has been examining Nizam-era documents, genealogy, educational and revenue proofs, agreements signed during the Nizam-era, and other related documents required to give Kunbi certificates to Maratha community members in Marathwada.

The state government had formed this panel to determine the SOP, including legal and administrative framework, for giving caste certificates to members of the Maratha community referred to as Kunbis in the Nizam-era documents.

Additional Chief Secretary (revenue), Principal Secretary (law and justice), and collectors of concerned districts are members of the committee. The divisional commissioner of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) is the member secretary of the panel.

The GR cited delay in examining these documents as many of them are in Urdu, Persian and Modi script, which was earlier used for official communication in Marathi, and unavailability of skilled translators who know these languages and script.

Since Marathwada was controlled from Hyderabad, the seat of power of the Nizam, many documents are in the city.

The GR also said that due to the upcoming assembly polls in Telangana, its officials are busy in election duty resulting in delay in examining the documents. The panel will also need to examine documents in Telangana, it said.

Due to all these factors, the committee has been granted extension till December 24 to submit its report to the government, it said.

The GR said so far 1.5 crore records have been verified and work is in progress.