OTHER CABINET APPROVALS
Proposal to close Bharat Wagon and Engineering Company - a public sector enterprise under the Railways 626 employees to gain from voluntary retirement scheme to be offered at 2007 pay scale; govt gives one-time grant of ~151.18 crore towards severance package and for clearing the current liabilities of the company Transfer of 40 acres owned by the Airports Authority of India to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and communities, including the broadcategoriesofOBCsincluded on the central list. It will submit its report in 12 weeks from the day it is set up.
According to government data, which is not particularly exhaustive, quota benefits have been cornered by dominant OBC castes, like the Yadavs. The BJP had succeeded in consolidating non-Yadav OBC castes during the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls earlier this year, which had contributed to it winning a historic mandate. Some OBC castes, such as the Yadavs in UP and Bihar, traditionally do not vote for the BJP. This has forced the party to make efforts to reach out to non-Yadav OBC castes. The proposed commission is to be set up under Article 340 of the Constitution. According to a press release issued by the government, the panel will examine the "extent of inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes and communities included in the broad category of OBCs, with reference to the OBCs included in the Central list". It will also work out the mechanism, criteria, norms and parameters — in a scientific approach — for sub- categorisation within such OBCs.
The commission will also undertake an exercise of identifying the respective castes, communities, sub-castes, synonyms on the central list of OBCs and classifying them into their respective sub-categories.
Responding to a question whether the government will review reservations for OBC, as suggested by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat in 2015, the finance minister said: "Neither there is any proposal before the government, nor would there be a proposal (before it in the future).” There have been three revisions of the creamy layer bar: ~1 lakh in 1993, hiked to ~2.5 lakh in 2004 and ~4.5 lakh in 2008. The present ceiling of ~6 lakh was fixed in 2013.