Kerala - Kochi   

Call to update creamy layer criteria

KOCHI: The Muslim Employees Cultural Association (MECA) has urged the Union government to update the ceilings and guidelines for the determination of the creamy layer among the other backward classes (OBC).

The association, at a meeting held here on Sunday, asked the Centre and the State to thoroughly revise the creamy layer criteria on a war-footing so that the recent Supreme Court order approving the 27 per cent OBC quota could be implemented effectively.

MECA president N.A. Ali pointed out that the creamy layer guidelines were formulated by the Centre in September 1993. Since these guidelines were out of date and had no relation to current realities, they needed to be thoroughly revised in the light of the experience gained in the last 14 years.

The revision should take into account the fall in the purchasing power of the rupee, inflation, the pay hike for Central government staff and the cost of living index.

The MECA said the court’s directive that the OBC lists should be revised every five years was against the grain of the Constitution and also against previous court directives.

It pointed out that the list of SC-ST communities and the norms of the National and State backward communities commissions were revised only in ten years.

It said the parliamentary committee on reservations and the United Progressive Alliance’s expert committee chairman Veerappa Moily had recommended the removal of the creamy layer norm, but the norm was retained in the case of education.

The MECA wanted the Central government to take immediate steps to give effect to the reservation in the 2008-09 academic year. It commended Union Minister Arjun Singh and Congress leader Veerappa Moily for their support to the OBC reservation in education.

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