Yogi govt sets up committee on quota for backwards, MBCs

LUCKNOW: In a move that may have a bearing on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Yogi Adityanath government has set up a fourmember committee to take a fresh look at whether reservation to all backward and most backward castes (MBCs) is commensurate with their numbers.

The four-member committee comprises retired judge Raghvendra Kumar, former bureaucrat JP Vishwakarma, economics professor at BHU Bhupendra Singh and senior advocate Ashok Rajbhar. They have been given two months’ time to prepare their report.

The committee is named ‘Uttar Pradesh Pichda Varg Samajik Nyay Samiti’ or the backward class social justice committee.

A senior government official said that so far only select backward

› There are more than 60 such backward castes who are not getting reservation benefits as per their total numbers and hence the government has set up a committee to review it

UP MINISTER

castes were actually enjoying full benefits of 27% to OBCs.

“For instance, the Yadavs get the maximum benefit of reservation but then there are several MBCs like Rajbhars who aren’t getting quota benefits to the fullest. There are others too like Ghosi, Kamboj, Darzi, Bind who too aren’t benefiting as much. Hence a need for review,” the official said.

In 2002, the then chief minister Rajnath Singh too had attempted a quota within quota for most backwards and most dalits but the move failed after Singh’s government fell soon after. Later, BJP’s political rivals had also moved court to ground the Rajnath government’s initiative.

“That is why the committee will base its recommendations on the basis of a Supreme Court ruling of 1993 in the Indira Sahni case in which the court had justified a separate quota within quota for backwards,” an official privy to the development said.

The government wants all backward castes to get reservation benefits as per their numbers as well as keeping the larger social justice formulae in mind, a BJP leader explained.

“There are more than 60 such backward castes who are not getting reservation benefits as per their total numbers and hence the government has set up a committee to review it,” a UP minister said.

Political observers see the Yogi government’s move as an attempt to rattle the main opposition Samajwadi Party, which enjoys the support of OBCs, mainly Yadavs.

The committee will look at each backward caste and if the reservation they are getting is proportionate with their numbers.

It will also look into various schemes and facilities that are currently available for backwards, the job status of each caste vis a vis their reservation, comparative participation of all backward castes in government jobs, suggest ways to improve social justice delivery mechanism. Political observers say the move smacks of an effort to rejig the entire reservation process for backwards and MBCs.