The Bihar Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed the Bill to increase reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Extremely Backward Classes in state jobs and educational institutions to 65 per cent, which is up from the 50 per cent ceiling set by the Supreme Court.
The Bill has to now be signed off by Governor Rajendra Arlekar before it can become a law.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar proposed the amendments to the Bill hours after his government tabled the caste survey report in the assembly, which revealed that OBCs (27.13 per cent) and the extremely backward classes sub-group (36 per cent) account for a whopping 63 per cent of the state’s total population of 13.07 crore, while SCs and STs together were slightly over 21 per cent.
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Break-up of the quota:
According to the bills, the quota for STs will be doubled, from one to two per cent, while for SCs it will be raised from 16 per cent to 20 per cent. For EBCs, the quota will be 25 per cent, up from 18 per cent, while for the OBCs, it will rise from 12 per cent to 15 per cent.
Prior to this, there was a provision of 50 per cent quota in the states – 14 per cent to SC, 10 per cent to ST, 12 per cent to EBC, eight per cent to OBC and three per cent each to women and the poor among general category.
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The BJP said that it was fully in support of the Bill to increase reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Extremely Backward Classes in state jobs and educational institutions.
"The BJP has always been of the view that the country cannot develop without uplifting those who are economically, politically and socially backward," BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav said.
