india

Updated: Jun 13, 2019 06:01 IST

The Union cabinet on Wednesday extended the deadline by two months for a commission examining the issue of sub-categorisation within Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The move came a day after the commission’s chief, Justice G Rohini told HT the panel was giving finishing touches to its report that will be submitted next month.

HT on Wednesday reported the key government panel is likely to recommend radical changes to how the 27% reservation for OBCs is implemented for jobs and education.

If accepted by the Union social justice and empowerment ministry, these recommendations could dramatically change social and political equations in the country. In its first consultation paper, which has been reviewed by HT, the commission said there are 983 sub-castes which have availed almost no benefits from reservations.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which has been at the forefront of OBC politics, reacted to the likely changes to the implementation of the OBC quota and called it politically motivated.

“Principally, there should not be any dispute on sub-categorisation of OBCs in the larger interest of social justice but that must emanate out of valid scientific data. The government has failed to come clean on SECC [Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011] data as a result of which any move in the direction of sub-categorisation is self-defeating exercise,’’ said RJD’s Rajya Sabha member, Manoj Jha.

“And yes they must also remember that a legislative majority should not be perceived as a license to decimate established principles and cherished protocols.”

The data the panel has gone by is 100,000 admissions in the last three years to educational institutes under the OBC quota. They include admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology, National Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, All-India Institutes of Medical Sciences, and Central universities. The committee also looked at 130,000 recruitments in the central government that have taken place in the last five years.

Janata Dal (United) or JD (U)’s spokesman, Ajay Alok, said the benefits of the reservation should be availed by those who really deserve it. “...the concept of the creamy layer has to be kept in mind,” he said.

JD (U) is an ally of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Samajwadi Party leaders HT spoke to said they would study the proposals and comment formally on them later.