Furore over Maratha-Dhangar reservation

Nagpur: The furore in the legislative council on reservations for the Maratha and Dhangar communities led to adjournment of its proceedings twice on Wednesday, even as opposition leaders demanded that the government announce its decision on reservation immediately.

Alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government had cheated the Maratha community, the leader of the opposition Dhananjay Munde moved an adjournment motion in the Council, demanding reservation for the Maratha community. “Maratha youth have held 57 peace morchas across the state in the last four years. These youth could have chosen a different way of agitating but they did not. But don’t test their patience. Maratha organisations have announced agitations at Pandharpur on the occasion of Aashadhi Ekadashi on July 23 when chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is scheduled to perform mahapuja,” he said.

Mr Munde alleged that the government delayed reservation in the name of the state backward classes’ commission and never asked it to submit its report immediately. MLCs Sunil Tatkare, Bhai Jagtap and Narendra Patil supported the motion and called for a discussion on the issue. Mr Jagtap alleged that the Congress-NCP government provided for 16 per cent reservation for the Maratha community and 5 per cent for Muslims in education, which was upheld by the high court. However, the BJP-led government cancelled the reservation for Muslims.

Refuting the allegations, education minister Vinod Tawde said, “The state has implemented the Rajarshi Shahu scholarship scheme for students and has been giving financial aid to the youth through the Annasaheb Patil Corporation.” To this, opposition MLCs started shouting slogans, which led chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar to adjourn proceedings for 15 minutes.

Mr Munde also slammed the government over the Dhangar reservation issue.