MUMBAI/NASHIK: In a letter to Maharashtra state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Minister for Development, Anees Ahmed has demanded four percent reservation in quota for Muslims in the state.
Ahmed, who had been a controversial minister in the Maharashtra government, and who has locked horns with Deshmukh over grabbing of Waqf lands by the chief minister’s brother in Aurangabad, on Friday said that the state government must wake up to the problems of the Muslims and make four percent reservation for Muslims in government jobs including in the police department.
Ahmed said in the letter “If Congress-ruled neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh can legislate four percent reservations for Muslims in government jobs, why can’t Maharashtra? Several Muslim organizations were raising this question,” he added.
Ahmed further stated in his letter that the Congress party has always been committed to the welfare of the minorities. “The presence of Muslims in government jobs and the police department is very low and this has been taken note of by the Sachar Committee,” he said.
Meanwhile, taking serious objection to the word “terrorist” affixed on him by a two-member bench of the Bombay High Court two days ago on the issue of Marathi signboards, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena President Raj Thackeray asked the court to “fix” the definition of the word “terrorist”.
The MNS, Raj said, was not compelling anyone to put up boards in Marathi language, but doing this only according to the laws made by the Maharashtra government. Raj was speaking at a students rally in Nashik yesterday.
He further said that “when I and my party workers act according to the laws, the court takes a different view and slams the state government for its failure to curb my drive and refers to me as a ‘terrorist’. Does this make Anna Hazare, a social activist, a terrorist, if he goes on a fast or maintains a silence protest for his demands,” Raj asked.
