MH-MARATHA-COMMISSION

Maratha quota: Backward Classes Commission to submit report
    Mumbai, Nov 14 (PTI) The Maharashtra State Backward
Classes Commission is likely to submit its report on social
and economic conditions of the Maratha community, which has
been demanding reservations, to the state government Thursday.
Government sources said that commission chairman
Justice (retired) N G Gaikwad will submit the report to the
state Chief Secretary D K Jain in a sealed cover.
    Speaking to reporters in Akola district, Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the government will complete
all legal formalities by the end of November to grant Maratha
community a reservation.
    A senior BJP minister said the government had
requested the commission to submit its report by November 15
and had provided additional manpower to enable it to complete
the report in time.
    A two-week winter session of the state legislature is
scheduled to start in Mumbai from November 19.
    Sources said that the commission went through two lakh
memorandums, surveys of about 45,000 families and empirical
data on social, financial and educational backwardness of the
Maratha community.
    "It went through historical records, old verdicts,
constitutional provisions, writings by renowned anthropologist
and sociologist Irawati Karve and reports of organisations
such as the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics," a
source said.
    On June 25, 2014, the then Congress-NCP government had
announced 16 per cent reservation for Marathas and five
percent reservation for the Muslims. However, on November 14,
2014, the Bombay High Court stayed the decision in response to
a PIL.
    Maratha organisations had staged agitation for quota
across the state in July and August this year. PTI MM
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