Union minister for social justice and empowerment B.L. Verma said the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) received proposals to include 365 castes/communities in the Central List of Other Backward Classes (OBC) between March 2014 and November 2024 from different states and union territories.
Replying to an unstarred question raised by Hyderabad MP and AIMIM chief Asadudin Owaisi in the Lok Sabha, the minister pointed out that the Parliament is empowered to make a law to include or exclude castes/communities in the central list. The minister explained, “This is an ongoing exercise. The inclusion depends on receipt of a complete proposal including an ethnographic report from the concerned State or Union Territory, justifying the social and educational backwardness of the respective castes/communities, and the outcome of the public hearing.”
