Maha govt mulls to amend laws related to caste certificate

Maharashtra government is mulling amendments to the laws related to issue of caste certificate, on the lines of the one currently followed in Andhra Pradesh, to make the process easier for the people to get the document.
BJP leader Vijay Girkar, while speaking during Question Hour in the Legislative Council said currently, person applying for a caste certificate needs to produce documents of the last 65 years and it becomes difficult to furnish them.
"Whenever one wants to get a caste certificate, he needs to show the authenticity of his caste by submitting documents from the year 1950. Most people do not have such old documents. They are therefore deprived of certificates," Girkar said.

The way domicile certificates are provided by submitting documents of past 15 years, caste certificates should also be provided on the similar line, he added.
While responding to Girkar, state social justice minister Dilip Kamble said the government was considering of changing the existing laws on the lines of the one followed by Andhra Pradesh.
"We are considering of amending the existing laws for caste certificates. For this, we will hold a meet of all elected representatives from the backward classes with Union Law minister Sadananda Gowda. Based on the outcome of the meet, we will amend the existing laws," Kamble informed the House.

He said that there are currently 43,000 applications for caste certificates pending before the government.
"We have 36 committees across the states to look at caste certificate applications. They will be instructed to clear the pending applications within a fortnight," Kamble said.