The committee headed by Industry Minister Narayan Rane on the Maratha reservation issue will submit its report to Maharashtra Government by the winter session of State Legislature, scheduled in Nagpur, Minister for Social Justice Shivajirao Moghe informed the state Assembly here today.
The minister made the announcement, while replying to a calling attention notice by independent MLA Anil Bonde, Vijay Wadettiwar (Cong) and others in the Lower House.
Maratha community is seeking inclusion in the "Other Backward Classes" (OBC) for purpose of reservations in education and jobs. The existing OBCs are opposing this move as they do not want to share the OBC pie with Marathas. The panel held a public hearing in Nagpur recently, where representatives of the opposing communities put up their views strongly before it.
The Maratha reservation issue is hanging fire for last five years ever since the state backward classes commission headed by Justice (retd) Bapat submitted its report to the state government on July 28, 2008. Six months later, it was referred to a cabinet sub-committee to study the issue in detail.
Later, Justice (retd) Saraf took over as the commission head. His tenure was short-lived as he died on May 15, 2012. This was followed by appointment of Justice (retd) Bhatia as head of the commission. The state government set up the high-powered committee headed by Rane to examine the fresh information provided by the backward classes' commission.
