Maratha Quota Row: Maharashtra Grants 2-Month Extension To Kunbi Caste Certificate Committee

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government has granted a two-month extension to the committee appointed to determine the methodology for issuing Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas.

A Government Resolution published on Friday cited several reasons, including the need to translate thousands of old documents and obtain a comparative district-wise distribution of Kunbi and Maratha.

Shinde committee requires more time

The committee was appointed on September 7 and was expected to submit its report within a month. However, after nine meetings and visits to nine districts, the committee realised that it would require at least two more months to complete the study at hand. A formal communication was sent to the government regarding this, and the government subsequently granted an extension to the committee, a senior officer said.

According to the discussions, the committee needed to examine revenue, land, police, prisons, educational, birth-death, waqf board, and service records from the Nizam period prior to 1967 and 1948. Moreover, most of the documents in the record are in Urdu, Persian, and Modi scripts, and thus, they require translation. The entire task will take at least two more months, as stated in the report submitted by the committee to the government when requesting an extension. Accordingly, the committee has been granted an extension until December 24, as mentioned in the GR today.

Committee inspected 1.5 crore entries from 9 districts

Over the past month, the committee has inspected over 1.5 crore entries from nine districts. However, many more documents still need to be inspected, as stated by the committee.

The state government has also written to the revenue secretary of Telangana to expedite the acquisition of necessary documents from the Nizam era, said a senior CMO official. The committee has stated that it could submit its report even in November if it receives the desired records earlier.

The assembly elections in Telangana have caused delays in the process, a senior official explained.