Maratha quota row: Cabinet panel to study if Hyderabad, Satara gazetteers can grant Kunbi status

Manoj Jarange Patil

Maharashtra minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil on Sunday said that the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota will seek legal view on the implementation of the Hyderabad gazetteer on Kunbi status to the Maratha community.

Patil, while speaking to the media, said that Advocate General Biren Saraf and retired HC judge Sandeep Shinde have told the panel that they would need some time to study whether the Hyderabad and Satara gazetteers can be implemented as has been demanded by activist Manoj Jarange.

For the uninitiated, Patil chairs the cabinet sub-committee on the issues that are related to the Maratha community's demand for its social, economic and educational conditions and issues related to reservation.

“I will meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and apprise him of the deliberations the sub-committee had. There is a Supreme Court observation regarding the recognition of Marathas as Kunbis. We cannot override the SC observations (that Marathas and Kunbis are not the same). We are open to discussions as a solution needs to be found,” he said.

Manoj Jarange has been staging an indefinite hunger strike in South Mumbai's Azad Maidan since Friday. He has been demanding 10 per cent quota for Marathas under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

Jarange has demanded that Marathas be recognised as Kunbis — an agrarian caste included in the OBC category — which will make them eligible for reservation in government jobs and education.

(With PTI inputs)