The Bihar Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a Bill to increase reservation for scheduled castes, scheduled Tribes, other Backward classes , and Extremely Background classes in state jobs and educational institutions to 65 percent . This is well passed the supreme court’s 50 % cap.
The amendment Bill will now have to be signed off by Governor Rajendra Arlekar before it is law . The amendment were passed amid ruckus inside and outside the Bihar Assembly – over chief minister Nitish Kumar’s remark this week on women’s education and population control.
Under the revised quotas , SC candidate will have 20% reservation , those from OBC and EBC will get 18 % and 25% – a significant increase from the earlier 30% . Reservation of 2% has been proposed for ST candidates. At present there is 18 % reservation for EBC and 12 % for Background classes , 16 % for scheduled castes , and 1% for scheduled Tribes .
The existing three reservation for women from Backward classes has been scrapped. The amended Bill excludes the central government mandatory 10 % reservation for individuals from economically weaker sections, and will take total quotas to 75% . Nitish Kumar had proposed the amendment on Tuesday , hour after his government tabled the full report of the contentious state- wide caste survey .
The report said 36% of Bihar’s 13.1 crore people are from EBC and 27.1% are from Backward classes. The report was initially criticized by the BJP in a sharp response hour after data was released , prime minister Narendra Modi accused the opposition of ” trying to divide the country in the name of caste”
