Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar on Tuesday said that the Union government is considering a proposal to determine the equivalence of posts in State government PSUs vis-a-vis Central government posts for recruitment under the Other Backward Classes reservation (non-creamy layer). This will provide clarity to wards of those working in State PSUs.
The Minister was responding to a starred question from Congress MP Dean Kuriakose, who had asked the government about its plans to address issues faced by wards of OBC employees of state government PSUs. The MP had asserted that these candidates had been selected by the Union Public Service Commission but were rejected by the Department of Personnel and Training, citing a lack of any existing guidelines on equivalence with State government PSUs.
Mr. Kuriakose, wanted to know what the government intended to do about representations from these candidates.
Mr. Kumar, in response, said State Governments are already empowered to draw their own equivalence of posts between State PSUs and State Government posts. As for equivalence with posts in the Central government, Mr. Kumar said that a proposal to examine this is currently with the government.
He added that, in the meantime, the representations referred to by Mr. Kuriakose were being decided as per the existing guidelines on the subject.
The Union government had in 2017, brought out equivalence of posts in Central PSUs, Banking and Financial Institutions vis-a-vis Central government posts, hailing the move as one that addressed an issue pending for over two decades. The government had then said, “this will ensure that the children of those serving in lower categories in PSUs and other institutions can get the benefit of OBC reservations, on par with children of people serving in lower categories in Government. This will also prevent children of those in senior positions in such institutions, who, owing to absence of equivalence of posts, may have been treated as non Creamy Layer by virtue of wrong interpretation of income standards from cornering government posts reserved for OBCs and denying the genuine non creamy layer candidates a level playing field.”
