Backward Classes Commission notice to WB over inclusion of 87 castes in Central OBC list

The National Commission for Backward Classes has now issued notice to the West Bengal government asking it to furnish all required documentation for the proposal to include 87 castes in the State to the Central List of Other Backward Classes, saying among other things, that the State had so far been unable to show documents on genealogy of Hindu caste groups that had converted to other religions.

This comes even as the Commission is in the middle of an investigation into what its Chairperson, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, had in February called an “unusual abundance” of Muslim castes in the State’s OBC list.

In a statement issued through the government on Friday, the Commission said that it had issued the notice on October 16 and that the required documents should be presented at the next hearing, scheduled for November 3, adding that the State had already been put on notice for being unable to produce the documents as sought.

The Commission said that it had asked the State government to bring documents on description and genealogy of these 87 caste groups (78 Muslim and 9 Hindu), including documentation of the genealogy of those caste groups who were Hindus before and had converted their religion generations ago.

The Commission had held a hearing on this matter last month too, it said, during which the State government officials were unable to produce these documents and the documentation mandated by Supreme Court guidelines.

The Commission added that during the February visit, the State government had submitted that of the 179 OBC caste groups, 118 were Muslim and 61 were Hindu. Mr. Ahir, in a briefing in Delhi after the visit, had said that this was contrary to the State’s overall population make up. “How is it that majority OBCs are Muslim, when a majority population of the State was Hindu?” he had asked, while announcing an investigation into the State’s OBC list.

In addition to West Bengal, the Commission is also in the middle of looking into proposals from various other States on the inclusion of castes in the Central OBC List.