New Delhi, July 1: The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) submitted its recommendations for revising the creamy layer ceiling for OBCs to Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar. As reported by The Indian Express the NCBC has recommended a rise in the annual income ceiling from the present Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4.5 lakh.

Meira Kumar said the report would be placed before the Cabinet. "The report would soon be placed before the Cabinet to enable the Government to take a decision on revising the annual income ceiling for OBCs," Kumar said. Justifying the revision, Kumar said it was necessary to take into account the consumer price indices.

Though the NCBC unanimously revised and enhanced the creamy layer ceiling to Rs 4.5 lakh, one of the members of the commission Ram Awadhesh Singh dissented it saying the ceiling was very low. “It should have been at least Rs 10 lakh,” he said.

Singh rejected the very idea of a creamy layer in OBCs and said there was no mention of an economic criteria either in Article 15(4) or Article 16(4) of the Constitution for reservation in services or educational institutions. He charged the legislatures from the OBC community of failing to perform its duty to strike down the creamy layer concept. The former MP, however, congratulated the UPA for issuing orders to fill the 28,000 backlog jobs under the OBC quota.