The Centre’s landmark decision to identify posts in PSUs according to grades in central and state governments is threatening to be a messy affair belying Modi regime’s claim that it will fix the perennial problem in identifying creamy layer (ineligible for Mandal reservations) among OBCs employed in public enterprises. Last August, the Union cabinet passed a decision to draw equivalence of posts – tagging designations in PSUs as Group A/B/C/D as prevalent in the government. While Group ‘A’ falls in creamy layer, Group ‘B’ is excluded from quotas only in certain situations. With all posts divided between Group ‘A’ and ‘C’, DFS did not classify any as Group ‘B’. The DFS decision has triggered protests, with an employees association recently challenging it in the Madras high court. Protesting the non-identification of Group ‘B’, G Karunanidhy, general secretary of All India OBC Federation, said executive posts below DGM in banks should be identified as Group ‘B’ like in the government. He said putting all executives in Group ‘A’ would exclude most of the OBCs in banks from reservations. In the absence of equivalence, the Centre’s application of income criteria for OBCs in PSUs has triggered many legal challenges.
Equivalence for OBC posts likely to test govt
