LS passes key Bill to restore states' power to make their own OBC lists

New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Constitution (127th Amendment) Bill 2021 after a thaw in the logjam as Opposition parties backed the legislation but demanded the removal of the 50 per cent cap on the reservation and many of them also called for a caste-based census.

The Bill aims to restore the power that allowed the states and Union Territories (UTs) to make their own Other Backward Class (OBC) list. It was demanded by a number of regional parties and even the ruling party's own OBC leaders.

This is the only Bill that has been passed by the Lower House during the ongoing Monsoon Session after a proper discussion.

Replying to the debate, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Virendra Kumar, thanked all the members who participated in the debate.

He also said that it is good to know that the majority of the members are in favour of the Bill.

Noting that the Maratha reservation is a state subject, Kumar said: "With this Bill, we have empowered the Maharashtra government to implement the quota."

He said that the government is also of the view that a 50 per cent ceiling should be discussed, but one should also look at the judicial scrutiny, as he requested all the members to pass the Bill.

Earlier on Tuesday, when the House resumed at 12 noon after the first adjournment, the Speaker asked Kumar to table the Bill and initiated the debate.

Listing out the steps taken by the government for the welfare of OBCs, the minister said this amendment will restore the power of the state governments with respect to the state list of OBCs and explained the benefits which will be given to these communities.

"In medical colleges, about 4,000 more seats would be available now for OBC students," he said.

Noting that this Bill was brought to correct the earlier wrongdoings of the government, Congress floor leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said that his party is supporting also because any Constitutional Amendment Bill needs the support of the three-fourth members.

"The government repeatedly blames us for stalling Parliament, but this is not correct. We only wanted to discuss the Pegasus snooping case and that is why we are demonstrating," he said.

Raising the issue of the Maratha reservation, he requested the Union government to consider Maharashtra's demands.

Speaking on the Bill, BJP lawmaker Sanghamitra Maurya charged Congress for bringing NEET in a bid to cancel the reservation.

"The NEET is based on NCERT syllabus and the poor do not read this syllabus," she alleged.

DMK MP TR Baalu, while supporting the Bill, also raised the issue of removing the ceiling and recalled the contribution of Tamil Nadu leaders Natasen, Pitti Thyagarajan, Periyar, Anna and others.

Supporting the Bill, Trinamool Congress lawmaker Sudip Bandyopadhyay said that if the government had agreed to debate the alleged snooping incidents, Parliament would have functioned smoothly like now.

Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut said that the Marathas and Gurjars deserve reservation.

Meanwhile, Union minister Bhupendra Yadav reminded that the Congress was not able to implement the Kaka Kalelkar Commission's recommendations.

Yadav also said that the 102nd Amendment was brought in 2018, and the government's intent was that OBC lists are maintained both at the Central and state level.

The Central government did not want to take away the state government's power to maintain its own list of OBCs.

Janata Dal MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh, alias Lalan Singh, also supported the Bill and said that the 102nd Constitution Amendment Act gave constitutional status to the National Commission of Backward Classes.

Meanwhile, the Upper House of Parliament witnessed several adjournments on Tuesday due to a continuous uproar by Opposition members, mainly from the Congress, over the conversion of a calling attention motion into a short-duration discussion on the issue of farm laws.