Dhubri, Aug. 30: The Dhubri district unit of the Other Backward Classes Association has demanded that the state government implement the Centre’s OBC reservation policy.

Nearly 200 activists of the association had staged a sit-in in front of the Dhubri deputy commissioner’s office yesterday, demanding that the state government implement the Centre’s 27 per cent reservation policy.

The association alleged that the state government had reserved only 15 per cent seats for OBCs and had also not implemented the age relaxation policy as directed by the Centre.

The secretary of the association, Jibesh Chandra Roy Pradhani, told The Telegraph that they had submitted a memorandum to chief minister Tarun Gogoi through Dhubri deputy commissioner Kumud Chandra Kalita yesterday, urging him to direct all state government departments to implement the central government policy of reservation as recommended by the Mandal Commission.

The commission was established in 1979 by the Janata Party government under the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai to identifying those socially or educationally backward.

The commission, headed by B.P. Mandal, considered the question of seat reservation and quotas for people to address caste discrimination and used 11 social, economic and educational indicators to determine backwardness.

After the Mandal Commission’s recommendation on reservation, the V.P. Singh government had included all non-Scheduled Castes as Other Backward Classes and reserved seats for them in education and jobs.

Sources said till the commission recommended 27 per cent reservation in education and jobs, the OBCs had not been included in any reservation category.

The V.P. Singh-led political parties toppled the Congress government on the issue.

V.P Singh had promised to implement the recommendations of the Mandal Commission and he did so after becoming the Prime Minister in 1989.