RATIONALE OF INCOME LIMIT FUZZY

In the narrative over the reservation bill, it is unclear that how it will be ensured that the weaker sections get the benefit. The rationale of fixing the income limit of the family at ₹8 lakh remains fuzzy and there is no base for the same. The Central Statistics Office’s first advance estimate of the Gross Domestic Product projects per capita annual gross national income at around ₹1 lakh. Assuming a family of five (all earning, which is unlikely to happen), the average household income in India would then be just over ₹5.1 lakh. All that this means is that the limit of ₹8 lakh is very high. If we follow this, the number of families getting the benefits of reservation will be about 98% of total households in the country. Kamal Arora, Panchkula