The Centre has said the Maharashtra government did not support the proposal for granting facilities of Scheduled Tribes to the Dhangar community in the state.
As per letter of Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram to NCP president and Rajya Sabha member Sharad Pawar on May 14, the Centre has laid down the modalities for determining claims for inclusion in, exclusion from, and other modifications in the orders specifying lists for Scheduled Tribes.
According to these modalities, only those proposals which have been recommended and justified by the concerned state government and concurred with by Registrar General of India and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes are to be considered for amendment of legislation.
"As per the above modalities, the proposal for inclusion of dhangar was referred to Maharashtra government for comments. The government has not supported the proposal. You will appreciate that in accordance with the modalities, recommendation of the state government is pre requisite to proceed further in the matter," the letter stated.
The letter was written in response to Pawar's letter of November 8 last year where in he had forwarded a letter of Annasaheb Dange, President of Maharashtra Dhangar Samaj Mahasangh dated November 7 ,2014 regarding granting facilities of Scheduled Tribes to the Dhangar community in Maharashtra.
The BJP had promised to provide reservation to the community in its election manifesto.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had also told the legislature that the state government was in favour of providing reservation benefits of the Scheduled Tribes category to the Dhangar community, without disturbing the existing benefits of tribal communities.
Leader of opposition in the Legislative Council Dhananjay Munde said the government had "backstabbed" the Dhangar community.
