THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, Nov 9: The Bihar Assembly today passed the Reservation Amendment Bill, which aims to increase reservations in Bihar’s government employment and educational institutions to 65%.
On Tuesday, the Bihar Cabinet approved the proposal to increase the state’s quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
The Bill was passed in the state assembly without Nitish Kumar’s presence.
The development occurred when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar suggested raising the state’s quota for Other Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to 65% from the 50% cap imposed by the Supreme Court.
The proposed reservation will increase to 75% when combined with the Center’s 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
The proposed Bihar reservation is broken out as follows:
Scheduled Castes (SC): 20%
Scheduled Tribes (ST): 2%
Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC): 43%
In Bihar, there is currently an 18% reservation for EBCs, a 12% reservation for OBCs, a 16% reservation for SCs, a 1% reservation for STs and a 3% reservation for women from backward classes in state employment and educational institutions.
In the state assembly, the BJP brought up the point that the Bill’s reservation breakdown skipped EWS.
BJP said, “There should be no confusion regarding EWS.”
Bihar Cabinet Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary said, “There is no confusion in this. It is clear from the name of the Bill that it is regarding amendment in reservation for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes.”
