Akela
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was on Friday filed in the Bombay High Court after the government of Maharashtra announced 16 per cent reservation for Marathas in jobs and educational institutions.
The Congress-NCP Government had on Wednesday announced 16 per cent reservation for Marathas and five per cent for Muslims in jobs and educational institutions just four months ahead of the state assembly elections. However, the PIL has only challenged the reservation for the Marathas.
Former journalist Ketan Tirodkar have filed petition stating the government’s decision to brand the Maratha Community as socially and educationally backward is a fraud committed upon this country and its Constitution.”
PIL is likely to come up for hearing on Monday.
According to PIL between 1962 and 2004, over 1200 MLAs out of over 2000 MLAs, 55 per cent of the total, were Marathas, and more than 72 per cent cooperative institutions were controlled by people belonging to the community. Present Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar are from this ‘socially and educationally backward community’. Ninetynine per cent of the former Chief Ministers of the state also hail from the same community.
The Marathi speaking population of this State, whose mother tongue is Marathi, is called Marathas. It will be like Hindi speaking populace of Uttar Pradesh seeking reservation on all India level, Hindi being the national Language.