The Union Government has notified several significant changes in the central list of castes/communities for inclusion/amendment/ deletion in respect of the State of Andhra Pradesh and inclusion of several castes/communities in the Central List of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for the new State of Telangana.
It is based on the recommendations of National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) which is empowered under an Act of Parliament to examine requests for inclusion of any class of citizens as backward classes in the lists and hear complaints of over-inclusion and under-inclusion of any backward class in such lists and advice to the Central Government as it deems appropriate.
The gazette notification dated August 11, uploaded on the government website on Saturday, listed modifications in respect of 109 castes/communities in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It has also listed seven castes/communities including Munnurukapu (Telangana) who would no longer be eligible for reservations in jobs and educational institutions from the pool of 27 per cent quota for the OBCs.
In case of the newly created state of Telangana 87 castes/communities have been included in the list making them eligible for reservations. Significant inclusions are Dasari and Jangam who were traditionally engaged in begging and Odde and Kurmi.
Muslim castes/communities included in the list of the state of Telangana are Mehtar (Muslim), Dudekula, Laddaf, Pinjari or Noorbash, Qureshi (Muslim Butchers), Faqir, Fakeer and Rajannala, Rajannalu.
The Other Backward Classes (OBC) Commission is a permanent body which is empowered to make a determination on the backwardness or otherwise of a caste/community to qualify for inclusion or exclusion in the list of OBCs entitled to reservations. The Commission takes up claims on a periodic basis for consideration and recommendation.
It was constituted under section 3 of the National Commission for Backward Classes Act, 1993 (27 of 1993) as a follow up to the implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations.
Recommendations made by the states or laws enacted by assemblies for inclusions of castes in the list of OBCs are subject to judicial scrutiny unless approved by the NCBC. There have been several instances of courts striking down the decisions of the states, even if they are based on state legislation, declaring castes/communities as backward. The most recent examples are in the case of Jats in Haryana.
>Click here for the latest notification pertaining to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
