PM questions oppn for stalling national commission for OBC bill

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday questioned the opposition for stalling a bill in Rajya Sabha that seeks to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Castes.

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday reffered the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017, to a 25-member select committee of parliament headed by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav owing to strong reservation from opposition which outnumber treasurey benches in the House.  The panel will have to submit its report by the last day of the first week of the next monsoon session.

Earlier, the Lok Sabha had passed the constitutional amendment legislation with two-third majority amidst concern by opposition parties and some NDA allies on infringment of state's rights in the proposed National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (NCSEBC) which would replace the existing panel for OBCs. Once the bills are passed, states would lose the right to prepeare its own backward castes list. The centre will have to merely "consult" states for preparing the list -- which is also a contentious point for the opposition.

BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav told reporters that "PM said it's matter of surprise that it (the OBC Bill) wasn't passed by the RS despite consensus among all parties".  Yadav who was present in the meeting also qouted Modi as having said that the bill will ensure justice and social empowerment of the backward sections of the society and that it would have been better if  the bill was passed in this session of the budget which concluded on Wednesday.

Modi expressed his displeasure during his address to the OBC MPs of the BJP who had assembled at a parliament conference room in the morning to felicitate the PM for giving Constitutional backing to the commission - a long pending demand of the deprived communities which had found echo even in earlier parliament reports on the issue.
 
Now NCSEBC will be at par with National Commission for Schedule Castes and National Commission for Schedule Tribes, with both deriving their powers from the constitution for their uplifthment and greivance redressal.
 
Modi told the lawmakers to publicise the new OBC empowering legislation among the people as the BJP believes its a payback from the government for most deprived classes like Rajbhars, Mauryas and Passis, for  their mass support to the party during the just held Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.