Maharashtra Government, in a single lot, filled up 14 vacant posts of Chairperson, Caste Validity Committee, including those in three districts of Vidarbha -- Nagpur, Gadchiroli and Bhandara. State Government approved promotions to 14 officers in Additional Collector (Selection Grade) for the same. These posts were vacant since long. Vacancies resulted in piling up of cases relating to validating caste certificates of applicants. As complaints about delay in finalising caste validity cases began to rise, Maharashtra Government examined the issue in detail. During a meeting of Cabinet held recently, it was decided to have full-time officers in place and hence Additional Collector (Selection Grade) were named as Chairpersons. Already, Minister for Social Justice and Special Assistance Dhananjay Munde has decided to computerise the process of caste verification on the lines of passport.

 

Means a person can apply on-line for caste validity and then the entire process would be carried out on contactless basis through the official channels. Besides the 14 districts where full-time Chairpersons were appointed by Revenue Department, seven more posts remain vacant for which process is on. At Nagpur Shailendra Kumar Meshram will head the caste validity committee, in Gadchiroli, Suresh Jadhav; and in Bhandara, Mahesh Awhad. At other places Satara-Madhavi Sardeshmukh, Osmanabad-Jyotsana Hirmukhe, Thane-Vaidehi Ranade, Palghar-Vivek Gaikwad, Sanghli-Nandini Awade, Mumbai City-Anita Wankhede, Nashik-Geetanjali Bawiskar, Beed-Dilip Jagdale, Nandurbar-Arjun Chikhle and Mumbai Suburbs-Arun Abhang. The Caste Validity Committee is set-up in each district as per the directives of Supreme Court wherein they are entrusted with task of scrutinising caste validation of people belonging to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes, Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Classes.