The National Commission for Backward Classes has now issued notice to the West Bengal government asking it to furnish all required documentation for the proposal to include 87 castes in the State to the Central List of Other Backward Classes, saying among other things, that the State had so far been unable to show documents on genealogy of Hindu caste groups that had converted to other religions.
This comes even as the Commission is in the middle of an investigation into what its Chairperson, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, had in February called an “unusual abundance” of Muslim castes in the State’s OBC list.
In a statement issued through the government on Friday, the Commission said that it had issued the notice on October 16 and that the required documents should be presented at the next hearing, scheduled for November 3, adding that the State had already been put on notice for being unable to produce the documents as sought.
