Maratha quota: Backward Classes Commission to submit report

The Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission is likely to submit its report on social and economic conditions of the Maratha community, which has been demanding reservations, to the state government Thursday.

Government sources said that commission chairman Justice (retired) N G Gaikwad will submit the report to the state Chief Secretary D K Jain in a sealed cover.

Speaking to reporters in Akola district, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government will complete all legal formalities by the end of November to grant Maratha community a reservation.

A senior BJP minister said the government had requested the commission to submit its report by November 15 and had provided additional manpower to enable it to complete the report in time.

A two-week winter session of the state legislature is scheduled to start in Mumbai from November 19.

Sources said that the commission went through two lakh memorandums, surveys of about 45,000 families and empirical data on social, financial and educational backwardness of the Maratha community.

"It went through historical records, old verdicts, constitutional provisions, writings by renowned anthropologist and sociologist Irawati Karve and reports of organisations such as the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics," a source said.

On June 25, 2014, the then Congress-NCP government had announced 16 per cent reservation for Marathas and five percent reservation for the Muslims. However, on November 14, 2014, the Bombay High Court stayed the decision in response to a PIL.

Maratha organisations had staged agitation for quota across the state in July and August this year.