Maratha reservation, unseasonal rains to dominate Winter Session in Maharashtra Assembly

Mumbai: The complex situation of issuing Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas and its opposition by OBCs, demand for reservation category change of the Dhangars, unseasonal rains, drug trafficking case are among the issues that would dominate the proceedings of the two-week-long Maharashtra legislature session in Nagpur.

The sitting comes in the backdrop of NDA’s massive success in the Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections were it has bagged more than 50 per cent of the seats collectively.

The Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra government would not have an easy sailing as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi is armed with multiple issues.

The winter session will be held between December 7-20 and end days before the December 24 deadline set by the Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange-Patil.

However, state Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a senior NCP leader, who is backed by a large OBC community, has opposed the way OBC quota is being diluted. This comes after he pointed out that the original demand for issuance of Kunbi caste certificate was for Marathwada region. However, Jarange-Patil is pushing the government and now the entire state is being covered.

The Dhangar community - traditional nomadic shepherds - who get reservation in education and jobs under Nomadic Tribes (C) category which is 3.5 per cent of the state's population, are demanding that they be placed under Scheduled Tribes, which get 7 per cent reservation.

The Dhangar leaders claim ‘Dhangar’ and ‘Dhangad’ are same and a "topographical error" has deprived them from benefits under ST category like some other states. Dhangars are planning a mammoth morcha in Nagpur coinciding with the session.

The Muslim community too have been demanding the revival of 5 per cent quota. Maharashtra state Congress working president Naseem Khan has been demanding restoration of quota for Muslims for the last several years.

Now, All India Ulema Board (AIUB), which recently met in Pune, also formally made the similar demand with Saleem Sarang, the chief of AIUB’s Wakf wing threatening to take on the streets like Marathas and Dhangars.

Bhujbal has demanded that a five member panel headed by Justice Sandeep Shinde (Retd), which is known as Shinde Committee, be scrapped as the scope was limited to Marathwada.

The committee was set to define the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for giving Kunbi certificates to members of the Maratha community who (or whose ancestors) were referred to as Kunbis in Nizam-era documents.

On the unseasonal rains, which has affected crops on one lakh hectares, the MVA has demanded immediate relief to the farmers.