Government may hold special session to address Maratha unrest

The state government is likely to call a special session of the legislature to ease unrest among the Maratha community over reservation and alleged misuse of the Atrocity Act. If the Governor agrees to convene the session, it will be the second such this year with the first one having been held earlier this month to ratify the Goods and Services Tax (GST) amendment.

A Shiv Sena delegation led by senior party leader and minister for industries Subhash Desai met chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday evening at his official residence, Varsha, where they handed over to him a memorandum of demands.

According to Mr Desai, one of the demands was to hold a special session of both houses of the state legislature to discuss issues of the Maratha community. “The Maratha community feels very strongly that they don’t have opportunities in education and government jobs owing to lack of reservation for the community,” he said, adding that the huge protest by Marathas across the state indicated their unrest. He further said that as Sena was in favour of reservation for the Marathas, they requested the CM to look into the matter.

“We requested Mr Fadnavis that though the state had decided to allow reservation for the Maratha community; it should be time-bound, certain deadlines should be fixed, and it should not disturb existing caste reservations,” said the Sena minister. The party also demanded an amendment in the Atrocity Act. “We feel that the Act is being misused by a few people and of course, it is against the Maratha community. So, we feel it should be amended while keeping intact protection to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes,” he said. Meanwhile, opposition criticised Sena’s stance of meeting the CM over the Maratha reservation issue.