People belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs) earning Rs6 lakh per annum will no longer be eligible for reservations in Government jobs and admissions in educational institutions.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday increased the present income criterion of Rs4.5 lakh per annum to Rs6 lakh for excluding Socially Advanced Persons/Sections (Creamy layer) from the purview of reservation.
The increase in the income limit for the Creamy layer is in keeping with the increase in the Consumer Price Index and would enable more persons to take advantage of reservation benefits extended to OBCs. This would bring about equity and greater inclusiveness in society, an official release said.
The Department of Personnel and Training and the Ministry of Human Resource Development would issue necessary orders to this effect.
The Cabinet also approved construction of a ‘Rashtriya Smriti’ at the Samadhis Complex near Ekta Sthal in New Delhi, to establish a place to perform last rites of departed national leaders namely presidents, vice-presidents, Prime Ministers, former presidents, vice-presidents, Prime Ministers and such other leaders as decided by the Cabinet.
In the past, separate memorials for departed national leaders were created near Rajghat for former Prime Ministers Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Chaudhary Charan Singh etc which covered a large space.
In view of Cabinet decision taken in 2000 that “henceforth Government shall not develop any samadhi for departed leaders” and the paucity of land at the Samadhis Complex area, ‘Rashtriya Smriti’ is being developed to perform last rites of departed national leaders. The Smriti area will provide space for last rites of departed national leaders in future, besides space for a public gathering.
In another major decision, the Cabinet approved the establishment of the Gandhi Heritage Sites Mission with the objective of conserving and restoring the heritage sites associated with ‘Father of the Nation’. The Mission will aim at preserving for posterity 39 core sites as well as other 2,000 important sites earlier identified by the panel under the chairmanship of former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.
The Mission would be entrusted with the identification, collation and assessment of information on ‘Gandhi Heritage’ material for its management and deployment. Its task would also include the determination of conservation methodology and priorities for documents and objects, particularly from the point of view of archival storage and museology and for physical structures and sites. It would also develop guidelines for their subsequent maintenance.
The dissemination of information based on relevant material for identification, collation and assessment and conservation would be through a web based portal, publications, audio/visual (CDs, digital prints, etc) and communication through core sites while specifying — where necessary —function and use and the significance of the site.