President Kovind Appoints 5-Member Commission To Examine Sub-Categorisation Of OBCs

President Ram Nath Kovind yesterday appointed a commission to examine the sub-categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to ensure that more backward among the communities can access the benefits of reservation.

The five-member panel will be headed by retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court G Rohini.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in a statement, “Sub-categorisation of the OBCs will ensure that the more backward among the OBC communities can also access the benefits of reservation for educational institutions and government jobs.”

The decision, taken on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, reinforces, in the spirit of his teachings, the government’s efforts to achieve greater social justice and inclusion for all, and specifically members of the OBC, the statement added.

The joint secretary in the department of social justice and empowerment will be its secretary.

Dr J K Bajaj would be its member, while the Director of the Anthropological Survey of India and the Registrar General and Census Commissioner would be ex-officio members.

The terms of reference of the commission are to “examine the extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes or communities included in the broad category of OBC with reference to such classes included in the central list; to work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters in a scientific approach for sub- categorisation within such OBCs”.

The commission will also “take up the exercise of identifying the respective castes or communities or sub-castes or synonyms in the central list of OBCs and classifying them into their respective sub-categories”.

According to the statement, the commission is “required to present their report to the President within a period of 12 weeks of assumption of charge by the chairperson of the commission” and after this, the central government would consider ways and means for equitable distribution of the benefits of the reservation in central government jobs and admission in central government institutions amongst all strata of the OBCs. (PTI)