Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (File)

Home Minister Amit Shah has asked the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) to gather more data on backlog in recruitment, and find out if there are instances of appointment of general category candidates on posts reserved for OBCs as “None (of the OBC candidates) Found Suitable”, sources said.

Shah sought this information at a meeting with the NCBC at his office on Tuesday. He had called the meeting to discuss the government’s proposal regarding inclusion of salary in family income to decide the creamy layer. Sources said that the chairman and other four members of the NCBC raised concerns that a huge number of OBC-reserved posts are already vacant in central government and academic institutions.

NCBC chairman Bhagwan Lal Sahni said, “We said that if the new criteria are implemented, the representation of OBCs will decrease drastically. Shah listened to all of us and asked for some data in support of the points made by us.”

BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav was also present.

Sources said that NCBC member Sudha Yadav quoted from a report of a parliamentary committee headed by Yadav (Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances and Law & Justice) which mentions the backlog (as on January 1, 2019) in recruitment for posts reserved for OBCs in the central government. NCBC members also quoted the report of a parliamentary committee headed by BJP MP Ganesh Singh which said that as on January 1, 2016, the representation of OBCs in Group-A services of the central government was only 13.01 per cent and in Group-B services it was 14.78 per cent.

The NCBC has now started gathering data from all central universities, IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and AIIMS.