Continued effort to locate Marathas' Kunbi records, will be applied across Maharashtra: Shinde CM

 Continued effort to locate Marathas' Kunbi records, will be applied across Maharashtra: Shinde CM

The government issued an order earlier this week directing responsible authorities to provide qualified members of the Maratha community with new Kunbi caste certificates. This would allow them to apply for OBC quota privileges.

CM Shinde instructed the district judges to provide the necessary data on a war footing in less than a month so that the Backward Class Commission could easily gather community factual evidence.

The search for records pertaining to the Kunbi ancestors of Marathas, which is already underway in the Marathwada area, would be expanded across the whole state, according to Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

At a meeting on November 3 in Mumbai, Shinde instructed all divisional commissioners and district collectors to carry out this campaign in a mission style.

Manoj Jarange, a Maratha quota campaigner, broke off his indefinite hunger strike to demand reservation for Marathas the day before, but he still threatened to lead a large-scale march to Mumbai if a resolution on the contentious matter was not made in the next two months.

"The campaign that went into effect in the Marathwada region for investigating the Kunbi records is now being expanded to the entire state," Chief Minister Shinde said in a statement after the meeting.

"The Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde the committee will work for every citizen of the state," he said.

Additionally, he said that a chief secretary-level official has been assigned to oversee the job.

Participants in the video conference included district collectors and divisional commissioners from all throughout the state.

The chief minister instructed the divisional commissioner of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar division to organize a workshop for divisional commissioners and district collectors throughout the state and provide information about the Shinde committee's operations while assessing the progress of the search for the Kunbi documents.

He gave the district judges instructions to provide the necessary data on a war footing in less than a month, making it easier for the Backward Class Commission to gather community empirical data.

At CM Shinde's official residence, "Varsha," a second meeting was conducted. State Chief Secretary Manoj Saunik, Additional Chief Secretary Nitin Gadre of the The commander Administration-related Department, Additional Chief Secretary Nitin Kareer of the Financial Services Department, Additional Chief Secretary Rajgopal Devra of the Revenue Department, alongside Secretary Sumanth Bhange of the Social Justice Department were present.

The Chief Medical Officer said that digitalization and authentication of Kunbi registration data were necessary. He suggested that these data had to be posted to the internet after being translated into Urdu and the "Modi" script, which was formerly used to write Marathi.

Agriculture-related Kunbis are classified as Other Backward Classes (OBC) in Maharashtra and are entitled to special treatment in government employment and education.

Last month, the Maharashtra cabinet resolved to provide Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas from the Marathwada area who had tax or educational records from the Nizam rule that identify them as Kunbis.

The government issued an order earlier this week directing responsible authorities to provide qualified members of the Maratha community with new Kunbi caste certificates. This would allow them to apply for OBC quota privileges.