OBCs with annual salary up to Rs 6 lakh would now be eligible for job quotas as against the present bar of Rs 4.5 lakh after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday prevailed upon dissenting ministers against dragging the revision of creamy layer further.
The income ceiling for OBCs, revised every four years, has been hanging fire since it was vetoed by the "backward lobby" in the Cabinet last June.
A group of ministers cleared the Rs 6 lakh income ceiling on March 16, as reported by TOI, paving the way for the Cabinet to revise the income to exclude well-off backwards from quota benefits.
The issue again ran into a wall of three ministers on Thursday who objected to the proposed salary as being too low, arguing it had not moved up much since being fixed at Rs 1 lakh in 1993. They pointed out that National Commission for Backward Classes had suggested 'creamy layer' at Rs 12 lakh.
Sources said social justice minister Selja explained that any hike in creamy layer had to have a basis to be legally sustainable and the government had chosen Consumer Price Index. She also explained that NCBC had proposed 'dual creamy layer' of Rs 9 lakh for non-metros and Rs 12 lakh for metros, which was not possible.
The PM then stepped in to tell the dissenting ministers that the proposal should go through since it had been approved by a GoM.
The issue dragged on for over a year because of the strong push from the 'backward lobby', reflecting hostility for the exclusion criteria that survived the phase of backward ascendancy in politics because it is rooted in the Supreme Court order on Mandal report. The Centre has been cautious that raising the bar too high may be interpreted as an attempt to make it irrelevant.
While OBC ministers like V Narayanasamy and Veerappa Moily argued against a modest hike in the Cabinet last June, finance minister P Chidambaram clinched the issue in the GoM by saying that raising the bar too high would crowd out the poor among the backwards.
The income ceiling for OBCs, revised every four years, has been hanging fire since it was vetoed by the "backward lobby" in the Cabinet last June.
A group of ministers cleared the Rs 6 lakh income ceiling on March 16, as reported by TOI, paving the way for the Cabinet to revise the income to exclude well-off backwards from quota benefits.
The issue again ran into a wall of three ministers on Thursday who objected to the proposed salary as being too low, arguing it had not moved up much since being fixed at Rs 1 lakh in 1993. They pointed out that National Commission for Backward Classes had suggested 'creamy layer' at Rs 12 lakh.
Sources said social justice minister Selja explained that any hike in creamy layer had to have a basis to be legally sustainable and the government had chosen Consumer Price Index. She also explained that NCBC had proposed 'dual creamy layer' of Rs 9 lakh for non-metros and Rs 12 lakh for metros, which was not possible.
The PM then stepped in to tell the dissenting ministers that the proposal should go through since it had been approved by a GoM.
The issue dragged on for over a year because of the strong push from the 'backward lobby', reflecting hostility for the exclusion criteria that survived the phase of backward ascendancy in politics because it is rooted in the Supreme Court order on Mandal report. The Centre has been cautious that raising the bar too high may be interpreted as an attempt to make it irrelevant.
While OBC ministers like V Narayanasamy and Veerappa Moily argued against a modest hike in the Cabinet last June, finance minister P Chidambaram clinched the issue in the GoM by saying that raising the bar too high would crowd out the poor among the backwards.
Source:-The Times of India
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