OBC creamy layer upper income limit to be doubled
The UPA government is planning to revise the creamy layer criteria. This 
revision became important when in late March the SC gave its order on the 27% reservation for OBC in central education institutions. The apex court upheld the new reservation regime even as it ruled that the creamy layer be excluded from its purview.
This move is taken so that larger sections of Other Backward Classes can take benefit of this reservation scheme. The general argument being that even a class IV employee of the government would have an annual income of Rs 2.5 lakh. If limits were not raised then the number of OBCs to benefit from the new reservation regime would have be limited. This may have defeated the purpose of introducing the 27% quota.
The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) will submit a report in this regard to Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar tomorrow.
"We will submit our recommendation on the new ceiling tomorrow. Before this, commission members will finalize ceiling amount," said NCBC member secretary Luxmi Chand.
The general demand among states was to raise the cut-off income slab to Rs 4 lakh to Rs 6 lakh a year. States like Uttar Pradesh argued that there should be no income criterion for reservation, while Madhya Pradesh suggested Rs 10 lakh annual income cut-off. With prices of commodities rising manifolds and income level of OBCs rising in monetary terms, the demand to raise the ceiling was pending for long.
Those OBCs belonging to the creamy layer cannot claim benefits, including reservation in jobs and professional courses that are available to rest of the category.
The NCBC, which functions under the Union Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment, had sought views of all state backward class commissions on the ceiling amount. The income criteria, originally set at Rs 1 lakh a year, were revised in March 2004, when it was raised to Rs 2.5 lakh per annum. As per the government order defining creamy layer, the income criteria is supposed to be revised every three years.
