The top court, which refused to pass any interim stay order on the quota, said chances of physical court seem remote due to the persisting COVID-19 pandemic. A bench of Justices L N Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhatt asked the parties said that all parties should sit together and decide on modalities of hearing like who will take how much time and no one shall repeat the arguments.
'The problem lies in the popular perception that the Marathas are a rich, politically powerful and dominant caste in the state... The truth is different. The tragedy of this community is that only 137 Maratha families are the dominant players in state politics. The disparity is so wide, that the rest of the Maratha community isn't even half as rich, forget being powerful,' says N Suresh.
The 10-day-old BJP-led Mahayuti alliance ministry in Maharashtra was expanded on Sunday, with 39 ministers being sworn in, taking its strength to 42. The BJP secured 19 ministerial berths, followed by 11 for the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and 9 for Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party. Governor P C Radhakrishnan administered the oath to the new ministers at the ceremony held in Nagpur. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy CMs Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar were present.
Bhujbal, who has strongly opposed the demand to include the Marathas in the other backward classes category for quota benefits, said a new social system is taking shape in Maharashtra which is different from the order envisaged by prominent social reformers.
The NCP leader asked how suddenly a number of records showing Marathas as belonging to the Kunbi caste were being found.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari has said if stainless steel had been used for construction of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's statue at Rajkot fort in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, it would not have collapsed.
Nobody has claimed that the wagh nakh being brought to the state from London was used by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar told the legislative assembly.
Marathas have been declared as socially and educationally backward class of citizens and have inadequate representation in services under the state. They are entitled to reservation benefits and advantages enshrined in the Articles 15(4) and 16(4) of the Constitution, the recommendations mentioned.
The Bombay High Court on Friday stayed implementation of the controversial decision of the erstwhile Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in Maharashtra to provide reservation to Marathas in government jobs and educational institutions announced ahead of the state assembly election.
Meanwhile, a structural engineer named in the case registered in connection with the collapse of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's statue claimed that he was not the structural consultant for the project.
Shah also challenged the Congress to implement its Lok Sabha election promise of providing Rs 8500 monthly to women in states ruled by the party.
Voters, it is said, get the government they deserve. We will soon see what voters in Maharashtra choose. Till then, a sense of helplessness and scepticism hangs in the air, notes Ramesh Menon.
The state government is worried that the agitation may pose a serious threat to it, reports Sanjay Jog.
Representatives of the Maratha community attributed the stepping up of pressure by the community to the "arrogance and lies" told to its members by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, and the "uncontrolled anger" among its youth over the delay in getting reservations.
Sindhudurg police in Maharashtra has formed seven teams to track down sculptor Jaydeep Apte who executed the contract to make the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj that collapsed on Rajkot fort last month, an official said on Wednesday.
Activist Manoj Jarange on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra government to make it clear whether it is ready to provide reservation to the entire Maratha community and why it needs more time in granting quota to it.
Pawar said he has all the respect for the OBC community, but he does not want to hide the caste he was born in.
Sena-UBT leader and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray visited the Rajkot fort on Wednesday to take stock of the situation post the statue collapse.
Activist Manoj Jarange, who is observing an indefinite fast for the Maratha quota demand, on Saturday said a series of hunger strikes will begin in every village in Maharashtra from October 29 if the government fails to grant the reservation immediately.
The man, identified as Pramod Jaising Hore, had posted a message on his Facebook page and shared a message on WhatsApp on Sunday, saying he would be ending his life in support of the reservation demand, said Mukundwadi police station's Senior Inspector Natha Jadhav.
'Since September 1, a senior cabinet minister has been to-ing and fro-ing between Jalna and Mumbai by chartered flight every single day with messages from the two deputy chief ministers and the chief minister to get Manoj Jarange-Patil to back down from his agitation.'
Gandhi slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over the collapse of the statue of the warrior king at Rajkot fort in Sindhudurg district, and said the party's ideology is not right.
A Maratha community member from Dharashiv in Maharashtra, who was the first one to be given the Kunbi caste certificate in the district as part of the ongoing survey exercise, has decided to return the document to the authorities, saying he wants all Marathas in the state to be given this benefit.
'If a Brahmin child by birth is poor then he must get reservation benefits rather than an OBC child who is rich and born in a rich family.'
The judgment from a five-judge Constitution bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, offers clarity on licensing regulations and is expected to prevent insurance companies from rejecting claims based on the type of licence of drivers involved in accidents.
Lakhs of people, including men and women, students, working professionals, lawyers and doctors from the community, participated in the march, under the umbrella of 'Maratha Kranti Muk Morcha'.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday apologised to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and those hurt by the collapse of the warrior king's statue in Maharashtra's Sindhudurg district, an act coming in the backdrop of a huge row over the crash which provided ammunition to the opposition to target the Mahayuti government ahead of assembly polls.
In a letter sent to Naval commander Abhishek Karbhari, Area Coastal Security Officer and Area Civil-Military liaison officer, on August 20, an assistant engineer of the PWD in Malvan taluka of Sindhudurg district highlighted that parts of the statue were gathering rust and it was looking "unpleasant".
The rallies have evoked huge response, compelling all political parties to take note the grievances of the community, a dominant force in the state.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who heads the Nationalist Congress Party, has said that helming the NCP away from the shadows of his uncle and founder Sharad Pawar after the split is a huge responsibility.
The government would extend to the Maratha community the educational concessions given to OBCs.
The directorate grants approval to the statues of iconic personalities if they are found to be carrying the facial and other physical features of those personalities well. The 35-foot statue of the Maratha empire founder, installed at Rajkot fort in Sindhudurg's Malvan tehsil and unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December last year, collapsed on Monday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday asserted that Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir, will not be restored even if Congress stalwart and late PM Indira Gandhi comes down from heaven.
Pawar urged people not to fall prey to the Opposition's "fake campaigns", highlighting government schemes for the youth, women, Warkaris (followers of Lord Vithoba) and others.
As Heeramandi, set in 1920s Lahore, drops on Netflix on May 1, Sukanya Verma marvels at Bhansali's magnificent slices of history in 25 resplendent frames.
Shinde also took a swipe at the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar chief Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray while responding to Jarange.
Various Maratha organisations had held massive 'silent marches' across the state last year for various demands, including reservation.
They beat Bangalore Hi-Fliers in their last match of the Premier Hockey League to finish with 13 points.
A Public Interest Litigation filed in the Bombay High Court has sought to restrain Maharashtra government from extending benefits of reservation to the Maratha community except by following the "due legal procedure".
"The government recruitment is frozen. Where are the jobs?" the minister said.
