CM to address Maratha demands

Will soon meet representatives of Sakal Maratha Samaj to look into their demands, including reservation

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will soon meet representatives of the Sakal Maratha Samaj, the umbrella group of Maratha organisations, to discuss the community’s demands. The samaj was one of the organisers of the statewide Maratha protests.

Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil welcomed the samaj’s decision to meet state government officials and said Fadnavis would meet a newly-formed committee of samaj members.

The Maratha community held more than 40 massive protest rallies across the state between August and December last year. Their demands include reservation in government jobs and education, a review of the anit-atrocities Act, the implementation of the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations on farming and other reforms in social and economic sectors.

So far, the organisers of these rallies had refused to hold talks with the government. However, at a round-table conference of prominent Maratha leaders on Wednesday, the samaj formed a high-power committee to prepare a comprehensive draft the Marathas’ demands and present it to the state.

The committee does not comprise any politicians. At the meeting, called by Kshatriya Maratha Chamber of Commerce and attended by Chhatrapati Sambhajiraje — a Rajya Sabha member and a descendent of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji — the samaj decided to appoint a district-level coordinator to ensure better communication at the local level.

“The government will respond to the community’s demands positively. Earlier, the protest had no particular leaders and wasn’t represented by a specific face. So, the government was confused over who to talk to.

As a committee has been set up, it will now be easy for us to break the ice. The government has taken several decisions in the interest of the Maratha community,” said Patil.

Following the massive silent marches across the state, the state took various steps to pacify the Maratha community. Besides submitting an affidavit on the backwardness of the community, the government announced a fee waiver for

Maratha students. It reconstituted the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes, giving the community a significant representation.

The Maharashtra government also performed the bhoomipujan of the Shivaji memorial in the Arabian sea two weeks ago.

It has formed a training and research institute named after Maratha king Shahu Maharaj.

Marathas have been staging

protests in several cities to reassert their might in the state following a brutal rape and murder of a minor Maratha girl at Kopardi in Ahmednagar.

The three rape and murder suspects, who belong to the Dalit community, are awaiting trial.

On April 1, they were attacked by with weapons by four men on Ahmednagar court premises.

The Maratha community has been demanding death sentence for the three men.