Quota business

The Tribune, 2 September 2016

http://epaper.tribuneindia.com/c/12916898

Quota business

The proposed move to relax the creamy layer criterion by raising the income ceiling from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh annually is out of sync with reality (‘OBC quota norms likely to be relaxed’, August 29). The creamy layer income limit is exclusive of salary (both from government and private sectors) and agricultural income. Only business income is reckoned into the income limit. The government should, instead, classify various castes in SC/ST and OBC categories and assign differential quotas to consequent sub-classes; and rationalise the creamy layer income limit. 

Rajender Goyal, Bahadurgarh 

Original piece reads thus:

The proposed move of central government to relax the creamy layer criterion by raising the income ceiling from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh annually on the pretext that large number of vacancies in government jobs meant for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) remain unfilled for want of candidates is out of sync with ground realities. In terms of the creamy-layer criteria issued by Government of India DOPT O.M.  No.36012/22/93-Est. (SCT) dated 8.9.1993, Government of India clarification dt 14 October 2004 and NCBC Letter to Government of India in July 2016,  the creamy-layer income limit is exclusive of salary income (both from government and private sectors) and agriculture income.  Only business income is reckoned into creamy layer income limit. The first income ceiling for OBC reservation was fixed at Rs one lakh annually in 1993, which was increased to Rs 2.5 lakh in 2004 and then hiked to Rs. 4.5 Lakh in 2008 and further spiked to Rs 6 lakh in 2013 and now slated to be raised to Rs 8 lakh annually. The present income criterion of creamy layer in OBCs’ compared with the limit of below poverty line is highly ludicrous. According to Government of India, poverty line for the urban areas is Rs. 296 per month and for rural areas Rs. 276 per month.

Need of hour is to classify various castes in SC/ST and OBC categories and assignment of differential quotas to consequent sub-classes, and induction of some creamy layer criterion wrt SC/STs, and to rationalize the creamy layer income limit wrt OBC.  It will enable all castes of these reserved categories, and actually deprived persons of these castes to equitably reap the benefit of reservation.

Moreover, it would be apt to gradually move away from sole caste based criterion. To begin with let us reduce the present caste based quota from 50% to 35% and carve out a new category based on “individual/class/occupation linked income criteria” and assign it 15% quota besides 1%-5% horizontal quota for Sportspersons/Ex-servicemen/PWD/Women etc.  For example, from the standpoint of an individual all persons placed below poverty line (BPL) or persons forming part of some identifiable tangible class viz. rickshaw pullers, construction workers, farm laborers, domestic workers, small farmers, small traders etc may be made eligible for reservation.