Fadnavis forms cabinet sub-committee for Dhangar community

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Friday constituted a cabinet sub-committee to look into the demands of the Dhangar community.

A release issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said the decision to constitute this sub-committee was taken in view of the report submitted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) on the issue.

"The first meeting of the committee will be held on Saturday," it said.

The sub-committee will be headed by Fadnavis and will have ministers Chandrakant Patil, Subhash Desai, Ram Shinde, Mahadev Jankar, Pankaja Munde, Vishnu Savra, Eknath Shinde, Rajkumar Badole and Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar as its members.

Recently, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had called on Fadnavis with the members of the Dhangar community and discussed their demand for reservation.

The Dhangars are currently included in the Vimukt Jati Nomadic Tribe (VJNT) category, but they have been demanding ST status for long. The community forms nine per cent of the Maharashtra population.