Maratha Reservation: The Maharashtra government will hold its cabinet sub-committee meeting over the Maratha reservation today. The meeting is scheduled to take place around 12 pm today. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, both Deputy CM's Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar will be present in the meeting.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadanavis held discussions with Maratha agitation leader Manoj Jarange Patil and assured him that justice would prevail in Jalna incident.
The government is hopeful that a meeting with Maratha's agitation leaders will take place soon.
Jarange Patil had been staging a hunger strike demanding reservation for the Maratha community at Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna since Tuesday. However, the agitation turned violent on Friday after the authorities tried to shift him to a hospital.
As violence broke out, police baton-charged the protesters and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse them.
Several persons, including 40 police personnel, were injured and more than 15 state transport buses were set ablaze. More than 360 persons were booked in connection with the violence, police said.
"There will be a meeting between the government officials and Jarange Patil over the demand for quota to the Maratha community," the source said.
Rajya Sabha MP and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's descendent Udayanraje Bhosale had also requested CM for a discussion on the issue.
Govt committed to provide quota
In the wake of violence in Maharashtra's Jalna district over the Maratha quota demand, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said his government was committed to providing reservation to this community in education and government jobs.
Talking to reporters after attending a state function in Buldhana district, around 450 km from, he also said that there was no misunderstanding between him and two deputy chief ministers in the state and that all of them were working as a good team.
"My government is committed to giving reservation to the Maratha community in the state. We will not sit quiet until the community get its due reservation," Shinde said.
"Till the Maratha community gets reservation, the government schemes that are already in place will continue and deserving people from the Maratha community will benefit from it," he added.
Reservation in jobs and education provided by the state government to the Maratha community was quashed by the Supreme Court in May 2021, citing the 50 per cent ceiling on total reservations among other grounds.
An agitation seeking reservation for the Marathas turned violent at Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna on Friday, leading to several people, including dozens of police personnel, getting injured.
Police resorted to lathi-charge and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse a violent mob that allegedly refused to let authorities shift a man on a hunger strike as part of the quota stir to the hospital.
Raj Thackeray stopped in Aurangabad
Amid protest demanding reservation, MNS chief Raj Thackeray was stopped by agitators at Aurangabad-Solapur highway where he had a discussion with the people on the matter.
With inputs from PTI
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