Maharashtra clears bill giving 16% reservation to Maratha

Maharashtra assembly has passed the bill which was introduced by the state government proposing a 16 per cent quota for the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward category.

The Maratha community, which constitutes over 30 per cent of the state's population, had been demanding reservation in government jobs and education for some time now.

The community's agitation for the same in July and August this year had taken a violent turn. 

The Marathas are OBCs.

OBC communities are given reservations but since the Marathas were seen as part of the OBC "creamy layer" — along with the Jats and the Patels who are now also demanding they be given reservations — they were not given reservations. 

The previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) coalition government had also granted the Marathas a 16 per cent quota in jobs and education, but the move was stayed by the Bombay High Court.

News agency PTI had earlier quoted a source as saying that the government had been proposing to provide reservation to Marathas under a new category, called the 'Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC)', without disturbing the existing quotas for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The Opposition Congress and the NCP had been demanding tabling of reports of the State Backward Class Commission's (SBCC) recommending quota for Marathas and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences' report on reservation to the Dhangar (shepherd) community.

The Dhangar community had been pressing for reservation under the Scheduled Tribe (ST) category.

The Cabinet sub-committee was formed last week to study the SBCC's report on reservation for Marathas in government jobs and education and take a decision on it.

The government had received the report on November 15 and it was placed before the Cabinet on November 18 for approval.

(With inputs from agencies)