Backwardness only determinant for OBC status, not religion: CM during Monsoon Session

On Monday, the state Cabinet, led by the CM, gave nod to include 76 castes to the Other Backward Class (OBC) list. The 76 castes would be added to the existing 64 on the OBC list, an official said. The recommendations to add more castes to the OBC list were made by the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (WBCBC).

On Tuesday, the CM told the House that all inclusions have been done after extensive field surveys, and on the basis of recommendations by the Commission. “We made the new list of OBC-A and OBC-B on the basis of a scientific survey conducted by the commission and included those communities that are backward. While more backward sections of people have been included under OBC-A, the less backward category come under OBC-B,” the CM said.

Referring to the 2024 order of the Calcutta High Court that struck down the OBC status of several categories in West Bengal granted since 2010 (when the Left Front was in power in the state), the CM said: “The state government appealed against the High Court order before the Supreme Court. We started working with the permission of the apex court for inclusion in the OBC list. The Supreme Court gave us three months’ time to make a fresh OBC list after a proper survey. Accordingly, the commission conducted the survey and proposed a list of including 140 communities — 49 in the OBC-A list and 91 in OBC-B. A survey of 50 communities is underway. We hope that the survey will also be concluded by the deadline set by the Supreme Court.”

She said as per the Calcutta High Court’s direction, a public notification was issued for the purpose of inclusion in the OBC category in the state.

Following the completion of forming the OBC category list, recruitment processes in various state government institutions can be started again, Banerjee stated.

However, after the chief minister concluded her remarks, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari wanted to intervene, but before that Speaker Biman Banerjee adjourned the House for one hour. In protest, BJP MLAs started chanting slogans against the TMC government. “The chief minister was not ready to face questions from the Opposition. All the ruling MLAs and ministers basically fled after the OBC list was laid in the Assembly because they knew Hindus were being deprived. We will continue our fight for them,” Adhikari told mediapersons outside the Assembly.