New Delhi: Twenty five years after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report brought in 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC), President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday appointed a commission to examine sub-categorisation of OBC.
The move to appoint a commission comes after finance minister Arun Jaitley announced in August that the creamy layer criterion will be raised to Rs 8 lakh from the earlier Rs 6 lakh.
The commission has been appointed by the President under Article 340 of the Constitution.
The core purpose of setting it up is to look at sub-categorisation of around 5,000 castes on the central OBC list to ensure “more equitable distribution” of opportunities in central government jobs and educational institutions.
The commission will be chaired by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice (Retd.) G Rohini. Dr. JK Bajaj, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, will serve as a member.
The commission has been asked to present its report within twelve weeks.
The government said the commission’s aim is to achieve "greater social justice and inclusion for all, and specifically members of the Other Backward Classes".
The former National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) under Justice V Eswaraiah had in March 2015 submitted a report recommending sub-categorisation within the OBCs into Extremely Backward Classes (Group ‘A’), More Backward Classes (Group ‘B’) and Backward Classes (Group ‘C’).
MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment, Krishan Pal Gurjar, had said that the NCBC has recommended that the "Extremely Backward Classes should be grouped into a separate group which could include aboriginal tribes, vimukta jatis, nomadic and semi- nomadic tribes, wandering classes etc."
This recommendation was made to distinguish between extremely backward classes and 'forward' groups among the OBCs.
The commission under Justice (Retd) Rohini would examine the extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes or communities included in the broad category of Other Backward Classes.
The commission would also work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub-categorisation within such Other Backward Classes and identify the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the Central List of Other Backward Classes and classifying them into their respective sub-categories.
Comments
0 comment