Mayawati says UP govt move to include 17 OBCs in SC list 'selfish, political'

Lucknow: After the Allahabad High Court stayed the notification to include 17 Other Backward Castes in the SC list, BSP president Mayawati on Tuesday said such government decisions are "guided by total selfish political motives" but effects the entire society.

She said the move was "most unfortunate".

"The news of the high court staying the forcible declaration of 17 OBCs as Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh is naturally in limelight today. Such decisions guided by total selfish political motives do not affect any party/government but the entire society gets affected by it. Most unfortunate," Mayawati tweeted in Hindi.

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Staying the notification on Monday, the high court directed the state government to file its reply in three weeks on a petition against its decision to declare 17 OBCs as SCs.

The petition stated that the Constitution has empowered the Centre to make such amendments and include a particular community in the Scheduled Caste list. Hence, such a decision by a state government was in violation of Article 341 of the Constitution, it said.

According to the petitioner, the Uttar Pradesh government issued a government order in June to include 17 communities of the OBC category into the SC list.

Kahar, Kashyap, Kewat, Nishad, Bind, Bhar, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Batham, Gaur, Tura, Majhi, Mallah, Kumhar, Dheemar and Machua sub-castes were among the 17 OBC castes.

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(PTI)