Indicating that the state government would extend reservation benefits to the Maratha community, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Thursday that those preparing to agitate for reservation on November 25 should prepare for celebrations on December 1 instead.

Addressing a public rally at Ahmednagar district, the Chief Minister hinted that state government would expedite the Maratha reservation issue by December 1. It is interesting to note that the state Assembly is holding its winter session in Mumbai and it is set to commence from the coming Monday.

Minister for Education Vinod Tawde, who headed the committee constituted by the Fadnavis government to study the issue of Maratha reservation, said the government would take steps to ensure that there will be no need to take the OBC Commission report to the court.

BJP state unit president Raosaheb Danve has said that the OBC commission report would pave way for fulfilling Maratha reservation. Danve said the BJP expects to extend reservation to the Maratha community without disturbing any existing reservation of OBC's in the state.

After commission secretary DD Deshmukh submits the report to Chief Secretary DK Jain, the state Cabinet would take it up for discussion on Sunday. A few secretaries, including those from the department of law and judiciary, depart of general administration, and department of social justice, would hold discussions with the chief secretary before the report is taken up for discussion in the Cabinet on Sunday.

It is likely that the government would bring a comprehensive legislation to provide reservation benefits to the Maratha community. This could probably be why the CM said the Maratha community should prepare for celebrations on December 1.

Just before the 2014 Assembly elections, the previous Congress-NCP alliance government brought out an ordinance to provide reservation benefits to the Maratha community. However, the ordinance was struck down by the High Court on November 14, 2014. The Fadnavis government then brought out a legislation based on the earlier ordinance, but that was struck down by the court too.

The High Court had observed that there was no substantiation for the need to provide reservation to the Marathas. Therefore, the OBC Commission made exhaustive efforts by visiting all districts and conducting public hearings to gauge general sentiment on the issue. The commission was flooded with memorandums submitted by delegations and it received 1.89 lakh such representations in writing. After studying all of those, the commission finally submitted its report to the state on Thursday.

WHAT'S NEXT

An official informed that the commission has only decided on the basic issue of whether the Maratha community falls under the "backward" category.

To figure that out, they studied the standing of the community vis-a-vis social backwardness, educational backwardness, and economical backwardness.

Further decision on whether reservation will be given or not would be political, and the commission will have no say in it.