The West Bengal Cabinet on Monday gave approval to include 76 new castes to the Other Backward Class (OBC) list and make Murshidabad district’s Farakka a new subdivision, an official said.

The new castes would be added to the existing 64 ethnic groups on the OBC list, the official said. The recommendations to add more castes to the OBC list were made by the West Bengal Commission for Backward Classes (WBCBC).

The new subdivision of Farakka will comprise Farakka, Shamsherganj, Suti-1 and Suti-2 blocks which earlier were part of the Jangipur subdivision.

“Due to the growing population, the Jangipur subdivision authorities were facing difficulties in executing administrative work in the vast area. Hence, the decision was taken,” the official said.

During the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat, approval was given to create 109 contract-based posts at various administrative levels for the new subdivision, he added.

Banerjee, during her recent visit to the riot-hit areas of Murshidabad district, had announced the formation of the new subdivision. On April 12, one Harogobindo Das and his son Chandan Das were stabbed to death in their home in Shamsherganj’s Jafrabad locality amid the ongoing communal unrest in the wake of the protests against the new Waqf law. A Muslim youth had also died in police firing the same day.

The Cabinet also approved the creation of 336 posts and filling up the vacancies in the departments of home, health, finance, law, and municipal affairs, the official added.

The CM also reprimanded Transport Minister Snehashish Chakraborty for not informing her about a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between World Bank and State Transport Department recently.

The Chief Minister’s Office must give green light before any MoU or proposal is signed, she told Chakraborty.

— PTI inputs