Lucknow: With the crucial assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh around the corner, the Akhilesh government, on Thursday, approved the conversion of 17 Other Backward Castes (OBCs) to Scheduled Castes (SC) list at a cabinet meeting.
The proposal that is aimed at wooing the OBCs in the upcoming elections will now be sent to the Centre for clearance.
The 17 sub-castes which the government wants included in the SC category are Kahar, Kashyap, Kewat, Nishad, Bind, Bhar, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Batham, Gaur, Tura, Majhi, Mallah, Kumhar, Dheemar and Machua. This is not the first time that the state has approved the inclusion of these 17 OBC castes in the SC list.
In March 2013, the state assembly had passed a resolution asking the Centre to include 17 castes of the state into the list of Scheduled Castes (SC) category.
In the resolution presented by social welfare minister Avdhesh Prasad and passed by the voice vote in the House, it was stated that in a detailed study by UP SC/ST Research and Training Institute, these 17 castes have been found “deserving” to be included in the SC list.
Earlier, the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, too, had passed the same resolution in February 2004 and had sent the recommendation to the Central government for inclusion of these castes in SC list in December 2004.
