Kerala to set up commission on `creamy layer’

He said a multi-member commission would also be appointed to study the impact of reservations and to study the percentage of representation of each community in each category in government service and public sector units in the state. The term of this commission would be six months.

Achuthanandan said the government would pass a resolution in the Assembly, seeking constitutional amendment to allow creamy layer sections to fill posts left vacant for want of qualified hands from backward communities, and to ensure 10 per cent reservation in jobs for the poor among the forward communities. Thisresolution would be sent to the Centre, he added.

Achuthanandan said the decision was taken to safeguard the benefits being enjoyed by the Backward Classes while remaining within the stipulations of the Supreme Court order, nullifying the Kerala State Backward Classes (Reservation of Posts in Services under the State) Act, 1995.

The LDF ruled out the option of seeking a review of the Supreme Court order. The Justice K J Joseph Commission, constituted by the Supreme Court to determine the `creamy layer’, had fixed an annual income of Rs 1.5 lakh as the upper limit for getting the benefits of reservation for Backward Classes. The LDF wanted more flexible criteria to determine the creamy layer.

The commission,Achuthanandan noted, had said that the criteria should be revised every three years. The Supreme Court itself had observed that the state government had the right to appoint a commission to fix the criteria for determining the creamy layer.

At the next meeting on February 10, the LDF committee woulddiscuss and finalise priority programmes for implementation in the next year.