CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS TO NCBC
NEW DELHI: Parliament on Monday passed a bill to provide constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes, as several members in the Rajya Sabha urged the government to make public the findings of the caste census and implement reservation accordingly.
The demand was raised during a debate on the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill 2017 in the Upper House, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on August 2 superseding the amendments earlier carried out by the Rajya Sabha.
On Monday, the Upper House adopted the legislation along with the amendments made by the Lok Sabha, by 156 votes to nil.
Over two-third majority of those present voted in favour of the bill, which is a necessity for amending the Constitution.
The Rajya Sabha had earlier passed the measure on July 31 last year, along with an amendment and sent it to the Lower House. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill last week with alternate amendments as well as some more changes unanimously with over two-third majority.
Replying to the debate on the bill, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot said it would help the backward classes people fight atrocities against them and ensure quick justice to them. “This bill would provide justice to the OBC people, it is the need of the hour,” Gehlot said.
Referring to the suggestions by the opposition parties, he said the NCBC would have female representation.
He also assured that it would also not encroach upon the rights of state governments as they would have their own backward class commissions. “This commission has no relation with the state governments but is related to the Centre only.”
He said the state governments had their own lists of castes of OBC people, while the Centre had its own. The NCBC would recommend only to the central government regarding inclusion or deletion of a particular caste in the list.
“This is an important issue. There was demand for a constitutional status to OBC Commission from the 1980s and Parliament had held discussions several times. It has been discussed by the Standing Committee,” Gehlot said and urged the members to pass it expeditiously.
He said once the bill is passed by Parliament, the government would immediately form the commission.
Participating in the discussion on the constitutional amedment bill and the National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill 2017, Bhupender Yadav (BJP) urged political parties to shun “vote politics” and support these measures.
He charged the Congress of sabotaging the issue earlier and said it had chance to rectify its mistake by ensuring passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha.
“Last time the Bill fell in Rajya Sabha...upa in its two terms failed to bring this amendment... OBC is a religionneutral term and the Bill failed last time because politics defeated social justice,” Yadav said. He said the Bill is long overdue and lamented that many states have not implemented 27 per cent reservation to the OBCS and added that parties should “rise above vote bank politics and work towards social justice”.
Chaya Verma (Cong) sought reservation in Parliament and Assemblies for OBCS said creamy layer should be removed. She asked the goverment how it will implement the quota when it was encouraging contractual jobs.
Narendra Jadhav (Nom) demanded that the findings of the socio-economic caste census be made public. He said the Rohini Commission report and the census data should be compared to prepare fresh data of OBCS.