Mohali:- State leaders of the General Category Welfare Federation, Punjab—Sukhbirinder Singh, Ranjeet Singh Sidhu, Dilbag Singh, Pardeep Singh Randhawa, Harchand Singh, Surinder Kumar Saini, Kapil Dev Prashar, and Jasvir Singh Garang—issued a press note demanding that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) establish a General Category Commission at the Center. They emphasized that there must be a platform for people from the general category to voice their grievances.
The leaders stated that many people in the general category are poor and cannot avail of government facilities simply because they belong to the general category. They argued that in the current era, government benefits should be provided based on economic status rather than caste, as poverty is not confined to any specific caste. The leaders also demanded the implementation of a "creamy layer" threshold for Scheduled Castes (SC) to ensure that the actual poor within the SC category receive the benefits of government facilities. They observed that, in the past, affluent individuals within the SC category have been reaping the benefits of reservation for generations, while those who truly need it are being left behind. They asserted that to create an egalitarian society, government facilities should reach only the poor.
The leaders expressed their grievance against the Punjab Government, stating that it is openly discriminating against the general category. They recalled that the Congress government had established a General Category Commission in 2021, but the current Punjab government has neither opened an office for it nor appointed any staff. 
The first Chairman, Dr. Navjot Dahiya, had resigned to contest assembly elections, but even after four and a half years of the current government, no new Chairman has been appointed, despite the Federation repeatedly writing letters requesting the appointment of a Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and other members. They noted that this discriminatory attitude has caused deep resentment among the people of the general category.
The Federation leaders demanded that the Chief Minister of Punjab appoint a Chairman for the General Category Commission without delay and reiterated their demand to the BJP to form a similar commission at the central level.