- Home
- India
OBC creamy layer to be raised to tackle exodus from BJP in UP
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 1/13/2022 8:46:51 PM
NEW DELHI, Jan 12: Braving a poll-eve upset of Uttar Pradesh Minister Swami Prasad Maurya, a prominent Other Backward Class (OBC) face, and four other BJP MLAs quitting on Tuesday to join the Samajwadi Party, the Modi-government on Wednesday swung into action to placate the poor among the OBCs by jacking up the creamy layer for the reservations.
The creamy layer proposal, which was returned by the Union Cabinet last month to re-examine it, aims to raise the creamy layer for denial of the 27% OBC quota to children of those having gross annual income of more than Rs 12 lakh as against the present limit of Rs 8 lakh effective since 2017.
The social justice and empowerment ministry has swung into action to redo the proposal and rush it to the Cabinet before end of this month to woo the poor among the OBCs who find their quota cornered away by the rich OBCs. The revised proposal may also include salary and agricultural income in the calculation of the gross annual income.
In Uttar Pradesh, Yadavs, who form the bulk of the Samajwadi Party's OBC supporters, are usually the farm landlords and hence the latest exercise of adding the agricultural income in the creamy layer criteria will eliminate them from the reservations. The Modi government wants to play this card to influence the poor OBC voters belonging to the small allies of the BJP.
Once the new creamy layer of Rs 12 lakh per annum is notified, the wards of those falling in this category will be denied the OBC reservation, which is 27%, in admissions in the higher education institutions and employment in the government and public sector firms.
The criteria of the creamy layer came into practice first in 1993. It was raised from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh in 2013 by then Manmohan Singh government while the Modi-government raised the ceiling to Rs 8 lakh in 2017.
The income criteria is usually reviewed every three years and as such it should have been raised in 2010 and as such it has become overdue, causing a heart-burning among the OBCs for the delay.