By TCN News,
New Delhi: Reacting to media reports about Central Government’s move for Muslim reservation within 27% OBC quota, All India Muslim Backward Classes Federation (AIMBCF) has said that the government is not going to give new quota to Muslims, rather it is planning to fix share of communities of the castes already covered under the OBC category.
The OBC category has castes from different religious communities like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and others. Within 27% OBC quota, there is no sub-quota for castes or communities. This results in the majority community of the OBC quota taking away the lion’s share. The Central Government now wants to fix proportion for Muslim OBCs already covered in the category both at national and state level.
“You must be clear in your mind that Central Government is not going to do some new. They are only bifurcating 27% OBC quota to identify the proportion of Muslims. Out of this 8.44% share will be identified for Minority OBC and among them 6% share will be for Muslim OBCs. It is according to the wishes of Mondal Commission,” said AIMBCF in a statement on 13th Dec. 2011.
The group said that the central government’s announcement has created confusion: Some think the government is going to give new reservation to Muslims from OBC quota, and this will result in the loss of Hindu OBCs.
“Media and some Muslim leaders and even some Hindu leaders are not clear about this bifurcation. They are thinking that government is going to provide some new reservation for Muslims like the demand of Ranganath Mishra Commission. Some saying, by this way Hindu OBC will be in loss. The Muslim OBCs are already covered under 27% reservation for OBCs. After sharing, 18.6% quota will be for Hindu OBCs and 6% for Muslim OBC and rest for other minority OBCs,” said Haji Ibrahim Qureshi, President and Dr. Idrees Qureshi, Gen. Sec. of AIMBCF in a joint statement.
The fixation of share can give Muslim OBCs certain opportunities in jobs and education.
Some 140 Muslim castes have been declared Muslim OBC and listed in the Common Central List of OBCs. However, 20 years after the OBC quota came in place, only 6% OBCs are in central government jobs. Out of this, 4% are Hindu OBCs and .85% are Muslim OBCs while .15% are other OBCs, they said.