Divide OBC reservation into two parts to address inequalities, says Congress MP

Banaskantha, Sep 25 (IANS) Congress MP Geniben Thakor from Gujarat's Banaskantha has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the division of OBC reservations into two parts to address what she describes as "significant inequalities" in the distribution of benefits.

She says in the letter that the existing 27 per cent reservation quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) be divided into two parts for a better representation of all castes under the category in Gujarat.

In her letter, Thakor emphasizes that while there are 23 communities within the OBC category, 5 to 10 of them are reaping 90 per cent of the benefits despite already being prosperous.

Thakor called for a survey to assess the progress made for the most backward communities in the last 20 years, stressing that many communities have remained underdeveloped since India's Independence.

The Congress MP further proposed that communities like the Thakor and Koli groups should also receive reservation benefits. She suggested allocating 20 per cent of the reservation to those communities that have not yet received significant advantages and reducing the reservation to 7 per cent for communities that have already benefited.

There are 142 officially recognized OBC communities in Gujarat, including the Kayasths. In 2007, the Kayasth community across eight districts such as Bharuch, Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Navsari, Tapi, Narmada, and Valsad, was surveyed by the OBC Commission and subsequently included in the state's OBC list. The total population of the Kayasth community in these districts is estimated to be around 6,000.

Thakor clarified to the media that her request to “divide the reservation into 20 per cent and 7 per cent was not based on strict percentages but aimed at ensuring greater benefit for underprivileged communities while reducing benefits for those who have already received them.”

At 44, Geniben Thakor emerged victorious in the Lok Sabha elections, defeating BJP's Rekhaben Chaudhari. Thakor, a first-time candidate and mathematics professor at the Government Engineering College in Palanpur, won by a margin of 30,406 votes.

Thakor's win made her the only Congress candidate to secure a seat in Gujarat in this election. In the 2017 state elections, Geniben Thakor, an OBC candidate, gained a reputation as a “giant slayer” when she defeated BJP's Shankar Chaudhary, the chairman of Banas Dairy, by a margin of over 6,600 votes in the Vav Assembly constituency.