Maha: Commission’s data on OBCs may be flawed, claims Muslim group

Jalna: The chief of an organisation catering to Other Backward Classes (OBC) from the Muslim community on Sunday claimed the data collected on OBCs by the Maharashtra government-appointed Banthia Commission may be erroneous.

Shabbir Ansari of the All India Muslim OBC Organisation claimed several Muslim groups may have been left out as the five-member commission collected data on the basis of surnames.

“Muslim OBCs are engaged in caste and class-based occupations like gardening, weaving etc and several of these were identified as backward by the Mandal Commission constituted in 1979. However, many of them do not use surnames so may have been left out in the new survey,” he said.

The previous Maha Vikas Aghadi government had set up a commission under former chief secretary JK Banthia to collect empirical data on OBCs after quota for them in local bodies was set aside by the Supreme Court due to lack of such data.