Ashok Chavan: Maha govt doing its best to ensure Maratha community gets reservation

Maharashtra minister Ashok Chavan on Friday said the state government was doing its best to ensure the Maratha community gets reservations in jobs and education and most of the unwanted criticism was coming from the BJP.

"If issues like Ram Mandir and Article 370 can be resolved, why not Maratha reservations? Very few non-political organisations are saying the Maharashtra government is doing nothing on the quota issue. Most of the false criticism of this kind is coming from the BJP," he said at a meeting in Parbhani.

"The state government is doing its best and senior lawyers are ensuring its stand is placed effectively in court," Chavan, head of the cabinet subcommittee on Maratha reservation, said.

On Tuesday, a bench comprising justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi listed the pleas seeking to lift the stay on the Maratha quota law for hearing after four weeks.

On September 9, the Supreme Court directed that no quota will be granted to people of the Maratha community in education and jobs in the state this year and referred the hearing on a batch of plea challenging the constitutional validity of a Maharashtra law granting Maratha reservation in education and jobs to a larger bench.