Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday announced that the government will soon set up a commission to examine the sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), even as the OBC creamy layer criterion has been raised to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 6 lakh.
The commission is expected to submit a report within 12 weeks of the appointment of a chairperson, Jaitley added.
Earlier in July, the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) had in its report to the government recommended sub-categorization within the OBCs into three categories.
The three categories recommended by NCBC are Extremely Backward Classes (Group 'A'), More Backward Classes (Group 'B') and Backward Classes (Group 'C'), MoS for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Pal Gurjar said.
The commission has also recommended that the Extremely backward Classes be grouped into a separate group which could include aboriginal tribes, vimukta jatis, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, wandering classes etc.
The recommendation was made in an attempt to distinguish between extremely backward classes and ‘forward’ groups among the OBCs.
Nine States of the country viz., Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, Karnataka, Haryana, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have already carried out sub-categorization of Other Backward Classes.
