The Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a bill allowing 16% reservation for the Maratha community in jobs and education under the socially and educationally backward category, PTI reported. It will next be taken up in the Upper House for discussion.

“We have completed a due procedure for Maratha reservation report and we are bringing a bill today,” ANI had quoted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as saying earlier in the afternoon. “But for Dhangar [shepherd community] reservation, we have not completed the report, a sub committee is appointed and soon a report and ATR will be tabled in this House.”

On Tuesday, Fadnavis had said the quota for the Maratha community will be independent of the existing 52% reservation system in the state. On November 15, the State Backward Class Commission had submitted its report to the government recommending reservation for the Marathas, who comprise about 30% of the state’s population. The panel had said they are socially and economically backward.

Fadnavis had also said that the government was studying a report of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on reservation for the Dhangar community.