Panel to study OBC sub-categorisation

Girja Shankar Kaura

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 23

The Union Cabinet today approved a proposal for setting up a commission under Article 340 of the Constitution to examine the issue of sub-categorisation of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

The “Commission to Examine the Sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes” will submit its report within 12 weeks from the date of appointment of chairperson.

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It will examine the extent of inequitable distribution of reservation benefits among the castes/communities included in the broad category of OBCs, with reference to OBCs in the Central list.

The commission will also work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters for sub-categorisation within such OBCs, take up the exercise of identifying the respective castes/communities/sub-castes/synonyms in the Central list of OBCs and classify them into sub-categories.

The Supreme Court in its 1992 order had observed that there was no constitutional or legal bar to a state categorising Backward Classes as backward or more backward and that if a state chooses to do it (sub-categorisation), it is not impermissible in law.

Haryana, Andhra, Telangana, Puducherry, Karnataka, Jharkhand, WB, Bihar, Maharashtra and TN have already carried out sub-categorisation.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, also chaired by the PM, approved the renaming of the new Central sector scheme SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters) as “Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana”.