State council witnesses row over Muslim quota

The state legislative council on Tuesday witnessed sloganeering over the issue of reservation benefits to the Muslim community. There was pandemonium and at the fag end of the question hour when both the treasury and opposition benches tried to capitalise on the issue politically.

It was leader of the opposition Dhananjay Munde who raised the issue through a starred question. He questioned the action taken by the government in this regard. Munde asked whether the government had assured to gather information from the advocate general and whether a decision would be taken to provide reservation benefits to Muslims. MLCs Sunil Tatkare, Vikram Kale, Sanjay Dutt, Sudhir Tambe, Bhai Jagtap and others also raised the same question.

Minister for minorities welfare Eknath Khadse informed the House that the government had assured to seek the advocate general's opinion before making an appropriate statement in this regard. Khadse pointed out that since the government ordinance brought out by the previous government lapsed, his government would do whatever is needed.

Munde alleged that the government has deprived minorities from reservation benefits. Khadse retaliated by saying that his government would provide everything which was not provided by the previous Congress-NCP government for the last 65 years. His remarks evoked angry reactions from the opposition and many members protested with slogans. The chairman of the House announced amidst the pandemonium that question hour was over.