MPs flag issues faced by OBC civil services candidates over non-creamy layer certificates to Parliamentary panel

New Delhi: A group of MPs on Wednesday raised the issue of some successful OBC civil servant candidates not being able to join the government service following issues related to non-creamy layer certificates at a meeting of a Parliamentary panel, sources said.

MPs like DMK’s T R Baalu, Congress’ Manickam Tagore and Samajwadi Party’s Ramshankar Rajbhar as well as a BJP MP raised the issue at the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Welfare of Other Backward Classes.

The panel headed by BJP MP Ganesh Singh was hearing the views of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on the ‘Implementation of various measures/schemes for Welfare of OBCs’ when the MPs raised the issue.

Sources said the MPs were of the view that the issues related to acceptance of non-creamy layer certificates are being used to block young candidates who have cleared the prestigious exams. They are not being given postings citing that documents do not clear them as non-creamy layer, they said.

One of the MPs of the panel, Tagore, had in September written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighting the trouble faced by non-creamy layer candidates, whose parents work in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in state governments.

Tagore had argued that the government’s interpretation of the OBC creamy layer guidelines have been inconsistent.

"The inconsistency disproportionately affects candidates whose parents are employed in PSUs, public sector banks and other public sector institutions. The prevailing interpretation seems to favour those employed in central government and state government roles, thereby disadvantaging candidates from other sectors," he said in the letter.

"The current situation has caused undue distress to OBC candidates who have earned their positions through merit but are being unjustly denied (jobs) due to procedural ambiguities," he said while urging the government to clear the bottlenecks.