Bengal ready with job quota for Muslims

With the state headed for municipal polls this summer and Assembly polls next year, the West Bengal government on Monday announced 10% job reservation for Muslims under the OBC category.

Written by Political Bureau

February 9, 2010 23:26 IST

With the state headed for municipal polls this summer and Assembly polls next year, the West Bengal government on Monday announced 10% job reservation for Muslims under the OBC category. It would benefit Muslims who were educationally, socially and economically backward. ?Muslims form 25% of the state population and we have for long been thinking of doing something for them. We have decided to accept the recommendations of the Ranganath Misra Commission,? chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said. He said the creamy layer among Muslims with an annual income of Rs 4.5 lakh would not be considered for reservation.

Maintaining that reservation would not be given on the basis of religion, he said the government had begun the process of identifying Muslims who were educationally, socially and economically backward.

This article was first uploaded on February nine, twenty ten, at twenty-six minutes past eleven in the night.