NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee looking into the welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has said it was the “need of the hour” to revise the creamy layer income ceiling, saying the limit is excluding a large section of eligible OBC families from reservation benefits and government welfare schemes.In its eighth report presented to Parliament on Friday, the panel noted that the last revision of the income threshold from Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh per annum was carried out in 2017.The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) rules require the ceiling to be reviewed every three years or sooner, if needed.”The present threshold is low, covering only a small segment of OBCs,” the panel, chaired by BJP MP Ganesh Singh, said, adding inflation and rising incomes in even lower income groups had made an upward revision the “need of the hour”.”The Committee is aware of the fact that the income limit for determining creamy layer for OBCs should be reviewed every three years or even before the stipulated period. However, the same has not been revised since 2017,” it said.”The Committee, therefore, in no uncertain words, reiterate their recommendation for reviewing and accordingly revising the present creamy layer threshold limit to cover more and more persons from the OBCs as this would eventually help in raising their socio-economic condition to a satisfactory level,” the panel said.The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, however, told the committee that “there is no proposal under consideration” to revise the creamy layer limit.Another unresolved issue flagged by the panel is the absence of equivalence between posts in autonomous bodies and government positions for determining creamy layer status.The report said the lack of such equivalence has led to qualified OBC candidates, including those who cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination, being denied service allocation because their parents’ salaries were counted without considering post equivalence.
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