Shinde meets activist Patil, says state will provide viable solution

Hours after Maratha Reservation activist Manoj Jarage Patil ended his fast-unto-death state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met with the activist and assured him that a viable solution for reservation was being worked on.

The Maratha activist agreed to call off his protest and gave the state two months time to come good on its promise of reservation for the Maratha community.

After the meeting with Jarange Patil, CM Eknath Shinde said, "It might be the first incident in history for a justice (retired) to visit a fasting protest site to resolve the situation, Manoj Jarange Patil has given a two-month deadline of January 2. The government will seriously undertake steps to provide a judicially sustainable and legally viable solution that can pass scrutiny by courts for the Maratha community,"

"Until now, 13,514 records have been found, which is significant. The Justice Shinde Committee has worked day and night. The committee has asked for an extension, which I have conveyed to Manoj Jarange-Patil. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had decided that this issue should be resolved through discussions and dialogue." he added.

Justice Maroti Gaikwad, Justice Sunil Shukre, Advocate Himanshu Sachdev, and others were part of the delegation that met with Manoj Jarange Patil.

MLAs, Sandipan Bhumare, Dhananjay Munde, Atul Save, Uday Samant, Bachchu Kadu, and Narayan Rane also spoke with Manoj Jarange Patil to resolve the fasting protest.

"The Justice Shinde Committee will be strengthened. Manpower will be provided. The system will be expanded. The implementation of issuing Kunbi certificates will be accelerated. As a government, we will not deceive not only the Marathas but any community. Injustice to other communities will also not be tolerated," CM Shinde said.

"We are also working on the curative petition in the Supreme Court. The committee of judges established by the state government yesterday is guiding the government and the commission based on the observations recorded by the Supreme Court when it cancelled the Maratha reservation earlier. The Backward Classes Commission will undertake the task of assessing how the Maratha community is backward. The government will work very seriously to provide judiciary-sustainable reservations to the Maratha community" he further added.

Earlier, in view of the ongoing Maratha reservation row in Maharashtra, the state government on Tuesday accepted the first report presented by the Shinde committee and issued a Government Resolution (GR), to decide the procedure for granting Kunbi caste certificates to the Maratha in the Marathwada region.

The Justice Shinde committee reviewed the district-wise records in connection to the Maratha reservation. The committee directed the concerned 8 District Collectors to prepare a single sample for all the districts of Marathwada and inspect the records to submit a report to the government regarding the checked records.

The process of issuance of Kunbi certificates has begun. The Kunbi community is eligible for reservation in the OBC category.

According to the Justice Shinde Committee report, approximately till October 30, 1,74,45,432 records have been checked and from them.