Mumbai, Jul 26 (IANS): The Maharashtra Congress on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to implement the 5 per cent quota for backward Muslims on the lines of the erstwhile Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government in 2014.

State Congress Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan called on Shinde and submitted a memorandum seeking concessions for the minority community.

"In 2014, the then Congress-NCP regime had granted the 5 per cent reservations to Muslims based on their backwardness. But later governments did not maintain this reservation. It is not based on religion but only for academics and government jobs,” Khan told mediapersons later.

He explained that socially, educationally and economically backward Muslims were eligible for the reservations.

The Bombay High Court had also restored educational reservations by including it under Special Backward Classes A but suspended the quota for jobs till further orders.

Khan, who has been pursuing the matter for nine years with successive state governments, called upon Shinde for justice to the Muslim community and the latter assured to examine and decide the matter appropriately.

On several occasions in the past, Khan had demanded the implementation of the quotas for the backward Muslims but the matter remains hanging.