Bihar assembly passes Bill to increase ST, SC, OBC reservation to 65%

The Bihar Assembly on Thursday passed a bill to increase reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), Scheduled Castes (SCs), and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the state. The Bihar Cabinet cleared the proposal on Tuesday to raise quotas for these categories in government jobs and educational institutions to 65 per cent.

Today, the Reservation Amendment Bill was passed in the state assembly without Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's presence. Now, the reservation in the state will go up to 765 per cent from currently 50 per cent. Combined with the Centre's 10 per cent quota for the Economically Weaker Sections quota (EWS), the proposed reservation will go up to 75 per cent.

After the bill's passage, the SCs will get 20 per cent, OBCs and EBs will get 43 per cent, and ST will be entitled to 2 per cent. Currently, there is 18 per cent reservation for EBCs, 12 per cent for OBCs, 16 per cent for SCs, 1 per cent for STs, and 3 per cent for women from backward classes in state jobs and educational institutions.

The BJP, in the state assembly, raised the issue of not mentioning EWS in the reservation breakup of the Bill. The opposition party said that there should be no confusion regarding EWS, which was introduced by the Narendra Modi government in the Centre in 2019.