The Maharashtra Assembly on Tuesday cleared the Maratha Reservation Bill under which the community will get a 10 per cent reservation in education and government jobs. The bill was passed minutes after tabling in the special Assembly session.
After Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s appeal to pass the bill unanimously and with a full majority, along with opposition leaders, minister Chagan Bhujbal, the only member from the ruling Shiv Sena stood to object to the bill.
However, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis appealed to pass the bill unanimously, to which opposition leader Vijay Vadettiwar agreed.
Following this, the bill was passed unanimously in the Assembly’s special session.
The Chief Minister will now table the bill in the Legislative Council for assent, after which it will become a law.
On February 17, Shinde and Fadnavis had assured Maratha-reservation activist Manoj Jarange-Patil that a special session of the Assembly would take place on February 20 to complete the formalities to grant reservation to the community.
The announcement came the same day when Jarange-Patil’s indefinite fast for the Maratha reservation issue entered its seventh day.
But the activist called the passing of the bill a "betrayal to the Maratha community".
"This decision of the government has been taken by keeping the elections and votes in mind. This is a betrayal to the Maratha community," he told the ANI news agency.
"The Maratha community won't trust you. We will benefit only from our original demands... This reservation won't hold. The government will now lie that the reservation has been given," he added.
The passing of the bill comes on the heels of a report which was submitted by the Maratha Reservation and State Backward Classes Commission to the government on February 16.
The findings of the report revealed that the Maratha community, which constituted 28 per cent of the state's total population, had a lower percentage of people who completed their secondary education and graduation, post-graduation, professional education.
It said that the community's economic backwardness was the biggest barrier to education.
The report also said that there was inadequate representation of the Maratha community in all sectors of government employment and therefore, they are entitled to special protection for providing adequate reservation in services.
Citing statistics of farmer suicides, it revealed that 94 per cent of those who die by suicide belong to the Maratha community.
The report also stated that since other castes, groups with about 52 per cent reservation are already in the reserved category, it would be unfair to place the Maratha community in the Other Backward Class section.
The Commission found that the Maratha community is a socially and educationally backward class according to Article 342C as well as Article 366(26C) of the Constitution.
"Reservation for the weaker Maratha community is the need of an hour. If this is not done promptly, it will result in total social disequilibrium, social exclusion, increasing inequality and increasing incidence of social injustice along with the degradation of the society," the report added.
