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A parliamentary committee looking into the welfare of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) has said it was the "need of the hour" to revise the creamy layer income ceiling, saying the limit is excluding a large section of eligible OBC families from reservation benefits and government welfare schemes. In its eighth report presented to Parliament on Friday, the panel noted that the last revision of the income threshold from Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh per annum was carried out in 2017. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) rules require the ceiling to be reviewed every three years or sooner, if needed. The present threshold is low, covering only a small segment of OBCs, the panel, chaired by BJP MP Ganesh Singh, said, adding inflation and rising incomes in even lower income groups had made an upward revision the need of the hour. "The Committee is aware of the fact that the income limit for determining creamy layer for OBCs should be reviewed every three years or even before the ...
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not born in an Other Backward Class family, and he is misleading people by identifying himself as an OBC. Gandhi, while making a brief speech here on the third and concluding day of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Odisha, said Modi was born in a family that belonged to the general caste. Modi ji has been misleading the people by saying that he is an OBC. He was born in a family of the Teli caste, which was included in the OBC list during the BJP government's tenure in Gujarat in 2000. Therefore, Modi ji is not an OBC by birth, the Congress MP asserted. Gandhi also alleged that the prime minister does not shake hands with OBCs, but hugs billionaires. Clad in a white t-shirt, the former Congress president resumed the yatra on Thursday from the Old Bus Stand here and moved towards Kissan Chowk in an open jeep. He was accompanied by AICC leader Ajoy Kumar and OPCC president Sarat Pattnayak. The yatra