Cabinet nod for new OBC Commission

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet has approved setting up of National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, a new constitutional body to address grievances and claims of backward classes.

It will replace the National Commission for Backward Classes. “The commission shall examine requests for inclusion of any class of citizens as a backward class in the lists and hear complaints of over-inclusion or under-inclusion of any backward class in such lists and tender such advice to the central government as it deems appropriate,” a government statement said on Thursday.

The cabinet’s decision comes in the wake of the ongoing demand by the Jat community for their inclusion in the list of OBCs.

A constitutional amendment bill would be introduced in Parliament to confer constitutional status to the new commission. The new body will have a chairperson, a vice chairperson and three other members. “The advice of the commission shall ordinarily be binding upon the central government,” the official statement said.

As per current practice, the decision to include a community in the central OBC list rests with the government. The amendment now makes Parliament’s approval mandatory for any such inclusion.

The demands for grant of constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes so that it could hear the grievances of OBCs on the lines of National Commission for Scheduled Castes and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes have been frequently raised in Parliament.

The Parliamentary Committee for Welfare of Other Backward Classes had also recommended constitutional status to NCBC. Article 338B will be inserted in Constitution to create and give constitutional status to the new commission. A new clause (26C) under Article 366 would be inserted to define social and educationally backward classes.