MUMBAI: Apart from the 10 demands related to Maratha reservation that he has been pushing for the past three years, Manoj Jarange-Patil has now added another demand. The quota activist is clamouring for the scrapping of caste validity scrutiny committees, a demand that has invited staunch opposition from Other Backward Classes (OBC) leaders.
Jarange-Patil, who began his tenth indefinite strike on Saturday at his village, Antarwali Sarati in Jalna, announced that he would move his agitation to Mumbai if his demands were not met in the next few days.
“They insist on all types of documents but once money is paid to them, no documents are insisted upon. Then why should they have them in Maharashtra? “Sending the certificates to the committees after they have been issued by these officers is uncalled-for. Sanjay Lakhe-Patil, a political leader from Jalna, pointed out that Jarange-Patil was wrong, and scrutiny committees did exist in other states. “Constituting these committees is the constitutional and statutory responsibility of the state government and the demand to scrap them is against constitutional provisions. Jarange-Patil’s demand has drawn sharp reactions from OBC leaders. Meanwhile, Jarange-Patil has warned the state government that he will shift his protest to Mumbai if his demands are not met in the next few days. “The government has not been keeping its promises, and this is the decisive and final battle to get all our demands met. Marathas from across the state will join me at Antarwali. If a government delegation comes and meets me, it will be welcomed for discussions. Otherwise, we will continue our strike.”
“They are real hurdles in getting OBC certificates,” he said. Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha reservation, told me that no other state, or even the central government, has such caste scrutiny committees. Jarange-Patil said the protest would not be withdrawn till the committees were scrapped. “There is no need for a two-tier verification of certificates, as the issuing authorities, such as the tehsildar or sub-divisional officer, are competent authorities,” he said. “All states have them pursuant to a 1994 Supreme Court order in a civil appeal,” he said. Food and civil supplies minister and OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal said that scrapping the district-level committees, which have quasi-judicial powers, would be disastrous. “If they are done away with, there will be no control over the issuance of fake certificates,” he said, adding that it was mostly scheduled caste (SC) and scheduled tribe (ST) certificates that were faked since reservation benefits are higher for SCs and STs. “There are many instances of non-tribals securing government jobs on the basis of fake certificates,” he added. He said that members of the Maratha community would head towards Mumbai in five phases. “Sixty million Marathas will head towards Mumbai in thousands of vehicles,” he said.
