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Bihar: On Thursday,The Reservation Amendment Bill was passed unanimously by the Bihar Assembly. The Bihar Cabinet had passed a proposal 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.
This is well past the Supreme Court’s 50 per cent cap.The amended bill will now have to be signed off by Governor Rajendra Arlekar before it is law. Based on the survey findings, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had recommended a hike in the reservation of OBCs and EBS to a combined 43 per cent from 30 per cent, 20 per cent for Scheduled Castes (SCs) from 16 per cent and 2 per cent for Scheduled Tribes (STs) from 1 per cent.
The amendments 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. The quota for EWS will remain at the existing 10 per cent. The Caste Survey report revealed that Other Backward Classes(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 of 13.07 crore, while SCs and STs together were slightly over 21 per cent.
Under the revised quotas, Scheduled Caste candidates will have 20 per cent reservation, while those from OBCs and EBCs will get 18 and 25 per cent – a significant increase from the earlier (combined) 30 per cent. Reservation of two per cent has been proposed for ST candidates.According to the report tabled in the assembly by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, the state is home to about 2.97 crore families out of which more than 94 lakh (34.13 percent) live on an income of Rs 6,000 or less a month.
