OBC creamy layer ceiling may go up to Rs 6 lakh/yr

There would be more competition for filling up seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as the government is set to increase the creamy layer ceiling from 4.5 per annum to 6 lakh. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 14, 2012, 01:14:52 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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There would be more competition for filling up seats reserved for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as the government is set to increase the creamy layer ceiling from 4.5 per annum to 6 lakh.

It would mean that families earning six lakh or more per annum will not be eligible to seek OBC reservation benefits in government jobs and admissions in institutes of higher education. The government has reserved 27 % seats for OBCs.

The proposal likely to come before the Cabinet on Thursday is aimed at making the creamy layer realistic in terms of increasing incomes and inflation. Therefore, the government has tabulated the new creamy layer on basis of Consumer Price Index of December 2011.

The second attempt is to ensure that there are more eligible candidates to fill the vacant seats in higher education institutions and government jobs.

Seats for OBCs in premier educational institutions such as IITs and IIMs have remained vacant and also in government jobs despite special recruitment drives. As per University Grants Commission, around 30 % seats reserved for OBCs in centrally funded higher education institutions had remained vacant.

In March 2008, the government had increased the creamy layer ceiling from 2.5 lakh per annum to 4.5 lakh with a similar aim. But, that did not happen as in the last four years the government believes that average income has increased by around 33 %, thereby removing many OBCs from the quota ambit.

The government has, however, rejected the recommendation of the Other Backward Classes Commission to increase the creamy layer to around 12 lakh per annum.

In another inclusive bid, the Cabinet is also expected to consider a new pre-matric scholarship for Scheduled Caste (SC) students studying in classes IX and X. If approved, the government will pay for tuition fees and books of meritorious SC students in these classes.

There is already a similar post matric scholarship scheme for SC. The new proposal of the Social Justice and Empowerment ministry is to widen the government’s social inclusion programme.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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