Amid the approaching, rural elections, the Maharashtra cabinet proclaimed an ordinance to revive the OBC quota that was cancelled by the Supreme Court, by modifying Maharashtra’s gram panchayat law, stated reports.
Through the ordinance, OBC quota will be permitted in rural bodies, with a condition that when amalgamated with the SC and ST reservations, the total quota won’t exceed the 50% threshold. In addition to this, the OBC quote will not infringe 27% of the seats, adhering to the current state legislation.
According to reports, Chhagan Bhujbal, the state food and civil supplies minister elaborated that the OBC quota may be lower by 10-12% than earlier, in tribal districts where ST quota is bigger, the share of the OBC quota will be smaller, in urban areas the condition maybe vice versa. He added that the government had taken a similar route that many states in the south of India had.
On October 5, there are polls for six Zilla parishads and their panchayat samitis. There are also speculations that a quota ordinance will mostly happen in a week for the urban local body elections.
Whilst the opposition had embraced the ordinance, they believe that it will not help in the approaching polls, stated narratives.
Polls in ten pivotal municipal corporations of the state are expected to be conducted early next year.
The Supreme Court in March annulled the 27% reservations for OBC’s in the state’s local bodies, citing that when combined with SC and ST reservation it exceeded the 50% limit. The OBC quota could only be allowed once empirical data on the discussed community was gathered and the limit wasn’t crossed. The said data is yet to be collected by the authorities which could take several months.
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