Govt cheating Dhangars: Sule

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) Lok Sabha member Supriya Sule has alleged that the state government is cheating the Dhangar community. She said that she had asked a question in Lok Sabha about the inclusion of the community in the scheduled tribes category, but in reply, the Union government denied having received any proposal by the state government for reservation. Ms Sule said that the state government is cheating the people in the state in the name of reservation.   

“I asked a question about the inclusion of the Dhangar community in the Scheduled Tribes category. In reply, the tribal ministry clarified that it has not received a proposal on those lines. This means the state government has not sent any proposal till now. So when will it do that?” asked Ms Sule.

The NCP leader also said that the BJP had promised a decision in first Cabinet meeting if voted to power. “Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in on October 31, 2014. Since then he has had plenty of time and many Cabinet meetings to take a decision. He could have sent a proposal to the Union government. But nothing has been done on that front. This is cheating the Dhangar community,” Ms Sule said.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made a poll promise to Dhangar community regarding inclusion in the ST category. Currently, the community is getting reservation under OBC category and subcategory ‘vimukta jati, nomadic tribes (VJNT)’.