Senior PSU posts to come under OBC ‘creamy layer’

The Union Cabinet gave its nod to the decision Wednesday. The government has now brought PSUs and PSFIs under the ambit of “creamy layer” ceiling for OBC quota. This will exclude children of people holding certain high posts from reservation benefits. 

By: Express News Service | New Delhi | Published:August 31, 2017

NEARLY 24 years after a decision was taken to implement the concept of creamy layer in OBC quota to exclude kin of “socially advanced persons”, the move will now be applicable in public sector units and public sector financial institutions (PSFIs) as well. The Union Cabinet gave its nod to the decision Wednesday. The government has now brought PSUs and PSFIs under the ambit of “creamy layer” ceiling for OBC quota. This will exclude children of people holding certain high posts from reservation benefits.

Addressing the media after the Cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the purpose of this decision is to widen the net of quota benefits among OBCs. Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot called the decision “historical”. The Cabinet had last week increased the creamy layer ceiling from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh. The ceiling is determined on the basis of income and status, which is being implemented by the central and state governments since 1993.

In an official statement, the government said the Cabinet has given its approval to norms for establishing equivalence of posts in government, and posts in PSUs and public sector banks (PSBs). This will ensure that children of those serving in lower categories in PSUs and other institutions can get the benefit of OBC reservations on a par with children of people serving in lower categories in the government.

This will also prevent children of those in senior positions in such institutions — who, owing to absence of equivalence of posts, may have been treated as non-creamy layer by virtue of wrong interpretation of income standards — from cornering government posts reserved for OBCs and denying genuine non-creamy layer candidates a level playing field.

The six categories for identifying creamy layer decided in 1993 were constitutional/statutory post, Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ officers of central and state governments, employees of PSUs and statutory bodies, universities, people of the rank of Colonel and above in armed forces and equivalent in paramilitary forces, and professionals such as doctors, lawyers, management consultants, engineers, property owners with agricultural holdings or vacant land and/or buildings and income/wealth tax assessees.

It was then also stipulated that these parameters would apply to officers holding equivalent or comparable posts in PSUs, banks, insurance organisations, universities, and the government was required to determine equivalence of positions in these organisations with those in the government. Since this exercise of determining the equivalence of posts in government and posts in PSUs and public sector banks had not been initiated, the determination of equivalence of posts was pending for almost 24 years.