Govt Announces Job Quota For More Castes

To ensure the credit of broadening the caste reservations base went to the central government and the Opposition did not get a chance to exploit it for political gain, the government today decided to include a number of new castes and communities in the central list of Other Backward Castes (OBC) in various states including Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Simultaneously, it referred to Attorney-General Soli J Sorabjee, the issue of how best to design a system of reservation for the poor upper castes.

After a meeting of the Union Cabinet, presided over by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, an official spokesman said in Delhi, the Julaha-Ansari, Idrishi, Naddaf, Mansoori and Salmani castes