Mumbai: In a bid to woo the Maratha community which is pressing for the restoration of the 12 per cent quota in education and the 13 per cent quota in jobs that was cancelled by the Supreme Court, the Maharashtra government will provide Rs 10 lakh each to the kin of the 34 people who died in the agitation for Maratha reservation. The government has released the aid from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The government has transferred the amount to the concerned district collectors to give to the 34 bereaved families.
Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan, who heads the cabinet subcommittee on Maratha reservation, said, “The Maha Vikas Aghadi government has fulfilled its promise to provide Rs 10 lakh each to the kin of those who died in the agitation. The 34 families that will receive the financial assistance are from Aurangabad (6), Jalna (3), Beed (11), Osmanabad (2), Nanded (2), Latur (4), Pune (3) and one each from Ahmednagar, Solapur and Parbhani districts. I am grateful to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar for this.”
The BJP-led government had announced during its tenure from 2014 to 2019 that 15 families had been given Rs 5 lakh each, instead of Rs 10 lakh each. Chavan said the government had transferred Rs 2.65 crore to the concerned district collectors from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
The Maratha Kranti Morcha had organised 58 silent morchas across Maharashtra between 2017 and 2018, demanding Maratha quota. Every morcha had attracted between two to five lakh participants while in some places, the MKM had claimed that over 10 lakh people had participated.
Thereafter, the BJP-led government passed the law providing 16 per cent quota to the Maratha community in 2018. It was later upheld by the Bombay High Court in June 2019 but the court reduced the 16 per cent quota, granted to the community through a state law last year, to 12 per cent in education and 13 per cent in jobs, as recommended by the State Backward Classes Commission.
