National commission accuses West Bengal govt of doling out OBC reservation to Rohingyas and Bangladeshis

Karam Prakash

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New Delhi, June 9

National Commission for Other Backward Classes (OBC) chairperson Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Thursday accused the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal of doling out the OBC reservation to some ineligible Muslim communitiesincluding Bangladeshis and Rohingyas.

The Commission chairperson called it injustice to the eligible beneficiaries.

The commission chairman said they had ordered an inquiry into this.

Hansraj claimed that there are 178 communities in the state in the OBC list. Of this, 118 are Muslim. “How come there are more Muslim communities in the list when the population of Hindus is more. I am not against Muslims, but only eligible communities should get the reservation,” Hansraj said.

He said the commission had asked the TMC government to produce the documents on the basis of which these communities had been given OBC reservation but the state government had no answer.

“We received several complaints that made us to look into the issue,” he said.

Punjab told to increase OBC reservation to 25 per cent 

The commission after deliberation with the officials of the state government directed the Punjab government to enhance the OBC reservation in the state from the existing 12 per cent to 25 per cent. “The Punjab government is giving only 37 per cent total reservation as against 50. The government has no answer as to why they are giving less reservation. We have directed them to increase the OBC reservation by 13 per cent,” said Hansraj.