State still struggling to fit bill in legal boundary

The community’s quota percentage is yet to be finalised by the committee

The Maharashtra government is set to table the legislation to grant the reservation to the Maratha community before the assembly most probably on Wednesday or on Thursday, the sub-committee of the ministers appointed on quota issue is still struggling with making consensus on percentage to be granted for Marathas and how to fit the bill in legal boundary.

A source from the government claimed the percentage would be less than 16 per cent. The erstwhile Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government had granted 16 per cent quota to the community before the 2014 assembly polls.

The sub-committee headed by Chandrakant Patil, minister for revenue, held two marathon meetings on Monday and Tuesday. Vishnu Savra, minister for Tribal development and the member of the sub-committee on Maratha quota, said, “We are working on bringing legislation to grant quota to the Maratha community. The officials from Law and Judicial (L & J) and representative of the Attorney General of the state attended the meeting to guide the committee on legal hurdles.”

The minister further said, “We are still struggling on fitting the draft bill of the quota in legal manners to ensure it can be accepted by the court, if challenged by anyone. We will bring the new draft bill instead of making amendment in the previous bill passed by the Congress-NCP government.”

The sub-committee was divided on the percent of reservation to be granted to the community. The members discussed whether to recommend 16 percent or less than that of to the state. Finally, it was decided to give powers to the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to finalise the quota percent. However, Savra clarified there were no differences among the members over the quota percent issue.

The draft bill was expected to finalise on Tuesday late evening meeting and to be introduced

in the assembly on Wednesday. “There are possibilities that we can table the bill in the assembly house on Wednesday for the passage,” said the minister.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the government is all set to grant a separate quota for the Marathas which won’t affect the existing quota for Other Backward Class (OBC). “The government is following all statutory provisions and is working strictly according to the law,” said Fadnavis.