NEW DELHI: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday said the bill granting constitutional status to National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) was historic and underlined the Modi government's commitment to the progress of Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Soon after Rajya Sabha passed the bill, Shah was joined by several cabinet ministers as he told reporters that the government had fulfilled a demand which backward classes had been making since 1955 but no other government paid heed to. Lok Sabha had passed the bill on Thursday.

“PM Narendra Modi has given justice to the backward community, which was deprived of development for decades since independence, with the legislation that grants constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes,” he said.

Passage of the bill will herald a new chapter in the development of the backward community, he said. The OBC community now had a constitutional forum to address their grievances, he added. The Modi government had taken a number of steps for the development of poor, villages, Dalits, tribals and backwards, Shah said.

