Mumbai: Amid hectic developments, Maratha reservation campaigner Manoj Jarange-Patil claimed that the Maharashtra government-appointed committee has found 54 lakh cases where the term Kunbi is mentioned in old documents related to the Maratha community even as he refused to budge and give time to the Eknath Shinde-led Maha Yuti dispensation after December 24, 2023.
“We would not give even one hour after the 24 December, 2023… ensure reservation to Marathas by then,” Jarange-Patil, the founder of Shivba Sanghatana, told reporters at the Antarwali Sarathi village in Ambad tehsil in Jalna district after a meeting of the team spearheading the demand of Maratha reservation.
Jarange-Patil’s statement comes a day after Rural Development Minister Girish Mahajan and Employment Guarantee Scheme Minister Sandeepan Bhumare met him on Saturday and sought extension of the time frame after informing what the government has done so far.
The government has informed him that the outcome of the Supreme Court on the state’s curative petition on blanket reservation was pending even as the committee headed by Justice Sandeep Shinde (Retd), to decide the procedure and scrutinise documents for granting Kunbi caste certificates, is doing its work.
The Kunbi community, a sub-caste of Marathas, would be eligible for reservation in the OBC category, however, the latter are up in arms against the move.
After the meeting, Jarange-Patil said: “… so far 54 lakh records (where the term Kunbi is mentioned in old documents) have been found… the government needs to expedite.”
According to him, the Maratha community has been facing injustice for decades. “We need a reservation which is maintainable in court and which is as per law,” he said.
Published 17 December 2023, 12:00 IST