Even as the demand of the Marathas for reservation is yet to be fulfilled, the Maharashtra government, headed by Devendra Fadnavis, is handing out sops to appease the community. The State government on Tuesday increased the upper limit of the Economically Backward Classes (EBC) to ₹8 lakh from ₹6 lakh.
The move comes at a time when the Maratha Kranti Morcha organisers have threatened to carry out agitations against the government on February 19 on their pending demands.
On Tuesday, besides increasing the upper limit of the EBCs, which covers all open category students, a number of decisions were taken by a high-power committee of Ministers. Students of professional courses will have to pay only 50% of the fee at the time of admission and the rest will be paid by the government to the institute. “Initially, the students were supposed to deposit 100% fee to avail the benefit of this scheme and they were to reimbursed later,” said Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil.
The government has also decided to provide loans to Maratha youths for business up to ₹10 lakh through the Annasaheb Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandal. The repayment tenure of the loan will be five years and the interest amount of about ₹6 lakh will be paid by the government to the bank directly.
