It was last increased in September 2017.
A Group of Ministers is contemplating if it should recommend raising the OBC creamy layer annual income threshold of Rs 8 lakh. It was last increased in September 2017.
There is a 27 per cent quota for OBCs in government jobs and higher educational institutions. But if the annual income of an individual’s parents is more than the threshold of the creamy layer, currently at Rs 8 lakh, then he or she cannot get the benefits of OBC reservation. Only those from the non-creamy layer get the benefits of the OBC quota.
“The GoM on creamy layer, which is headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, met on Wednesday and discussed the options of raising the OBC creamy layer threshold as well as making the process related to the Other Backward Classes (OBC) simpler,” sources said.
“GoM discussed the issue in detail. No further meeting is expected. The GoM will send its recommendations soon,” the sources said.
The move, if it comes through, will come ahead of Assembly elections in Bihar which are due in October this year. The state has a sizeable population of OBC communities.
The GoM on creamy layer includes Home Minister Amit Shah; Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot; Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan; Minister of Labor and Employment Santosh Gangwar; Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh; Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan; Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai; and Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Sanjeev Balyan as its members.
The GoM’s move to consider recommending the OBC creamy layer income threshold comes months after a government-appointed committee recommended changes in the process of defining creamy layer. The Expert Committee for revisiting Creamy Layer for OBCs, which was headed by former Secretary, DoPT, was constituted on March 8, 2019 to “examine the issues related to creamy layer equivalence among the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs).” The committee submitted its report in September last year.