Mumbai, Jul 6 (IANS): Former Minister and Maharashtra Congress Working President Naseem Khan on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar to take immediate steps to restore the 5 percent quotas for the Muslim community.

In a letter, Khan said that the reservations in education and jobs were given by the previous Congress-Nationalist Congress Party regime in 2014, as per the recommendations of various Central panels on the issue.

"The quotas were not based on religion but on socio-educational-economic backwardness, and granted vide an Ordinance on July 19, 2014. A petition was filed against the government decision, and later the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government did nothing in the matter for five years," Khan contended.

The letter, copies of which were sent to various other Ministers, also demanded a special package to alleviate the backwardness in the Muslim community on the lines of schemes launched for other backward class groups till the quotas are implemented.

He said that the issue also figures in the election manifesto of the Congress and NCP, and also a part of the common minimum programme of the Maha Vikas Aghadi which took power 20 months ago, and urged that the 5 percent quotas must be brought back on priority.