THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, Nov 7: Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, proposed on Tuesday raising the state’s quota percentage for Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Extremely Backward Classes to 65% from the 50% cap imposed by the Supreme Court.
The Chief Minister’s announcement in the legislative assembly came shortly after the state unveiled the complete findings of the contentious caste survey, which provides an in-depth analysis of the economic status of different societal segments.
The proposed reservation will increase to 75% when combined with the Center’s 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).
“Quotas for Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes need to be raised,” Nitish Kumar said during a debate after the tabling of the detailed caste survey report in the assembly. “We will do the needful after due consultations. It is our intent to effect these changes in the current session,” he said.
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.
The preliminary results of the caste survey were made public on October 2, but the second segment of data from the Bihar government’s caste-based survey was presented in the Bihar Assembly today.
