BJP cautions Maha govt on quota for Marathas

Cautioning Maharashtra government about negative implications of giving reservations to the Maratha community, the Maharashtra BJP said here today that there ought to be "proportional quantification" of reservations.

Talking to reporters here, Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council, Vinod Tawde (BJP) appealed to the Maharashtra government not to take any decision to allocate reservation to the Maratha community in "haste". "The Maharashtra government should not take the decision in haste. It appears that the Congress-led government wants to allocate reservation to the Maratha community before the model code of conduct for Lok Sabha polls comes into effect," Tawde said.

"If anything goes wrong while taking the decision, it will prove to be dangerous in future to the Maratha community," he said.

The development comes after a committee formed by the Maharashtra government under senior Congress Minister Narayan Rane submitted its report yesterday, which recommended allocating a 20 per cent reservation to the Maratha community, without affecting the quota for other backward castes (OBCs).

"The Maratha community should get reservations in government and semi-government jobs as well in other educational institutions like universities, colleges and schools. A decision should be taken in this regard," the Rane committee report said.

Tawde also criticised the state government's recent announcement of three important decisions in the state legislature, a day after its interim budget was presented by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. "By making these announcements, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan took away credit from Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar," Tawde said.