Calcutta, June 8: The state government today instructed its officers to ensure speedy delivery of other backward class certificates to applicants, many of whom are Muslims.

The decision follows a fiat from chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is in charge of the minority affairs department.

A heavy erosion in the Left’s Muslim support base, which was seen as a major reason for its drubbing in the recent Lok Sabha elections, acted as the trigger for the move, said a source at Writers’ Buildings.

In Bengal, 7 per cent of government jobs is reserved for OBCs.

Minister of state for minority affairs Abdus Sattar held a meeting today with the chief minister’s principal secretary, Subes Das, on the certificates and especially assessed the cases of Muslim applicants whose OBC status was yet to be decided. After the meeting, Sattar said: “It has been noted over the past few years that people applying for OBC certificates are made to wait for a long time. People from the minority community have also been facing such problems. The delay is preventing the applicants from getting jobs under the OBC quota. We decided to speed up the process so justice can be rendered to the applicants.”

Asked whether the government was contemplating a separate reservation for Muslims, he said: “Our Constitution doesn’t provide for reservation on the basis of religion.”

The backward classes department and the state OBC commission have been told to go through the applications and prepare a time frame for their disposal.

Is the move linked to the poll debacle? Sattar said: “Our decision is aimed at providing benefits to all OBCs, including Muslims.”

Scheduled Castes have a 22 per cent quota in state jobs and Scheduled Tribes 6 per cent.