OBC Quota Won’t Be Reduced While Giving Maratha Community Reservation, Says CM Shinde

Eknath Shinde, the chief minister of Maharashtra, declared on Friday that the quota for the Maratha community would not affect the reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC).

At Sahyadri Guest House throughout the day, CM Shinde met with members of the OBC and Nomadic Tribes. Senior ministers and officials were present, including Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. In the meeting, representatives from these sectors presented their demands.

The administration maintains that no community’s quota will be reduced. The quota for the other groups won’t be impacted when the Maratha community receives a reservation, according to Shinde.

He also said that people from the Nomadic Tribes had the full support of the government.

Officials, according to Shinde, have been told to establish 72 hostels for OBC students.

According to Fadnavis, plans worth Rs 4,000 crore are now being implemented. According to Pawar, who oversees the Shinde administration’s Finance division, the NT community would get a significant portion of the budget.

In the meanwhile, Fadnavis would go to Chandrapur to convince Ravindra Tonge to end his 19-day hunger strike, according to Sachin Rajurkar, general secretary of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh, who attended the meeting.

Tonge, the leader of the Rashtriya OBC Mahasangh’s student branch, is on a hunger strike for a number of reasons, including his opposition to the Maratha community’s inclusion in the OBC section for the purpose of reservations.

According to Rajurkar, Tonge would end his hunger strike on Saturday as a result of the state government’s pledges. He also said that the Chandrapur “bandh” call had been retracted.

Sources in Fadnavis’ office, however, have merely indicated that he is likely to go to Chandrapur on Saturday.