Bihar Cabinet approves proposed quota hike to 75 percent including EWS reservations

Patna (Bihar) : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar proposed to increase the reservation during the second day of proceedings in the winter session of Bihar Assembly. Under this, a proposal has been presented to increase the 50 percent reservation given in Bihar to 65 percent. If the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) is added, then the reservation will become 75 percent. CM Nitish Kumar claimed that the caste census done in Bihar is completely scientific.

Also, the Bihar Cabinet passed the proposal to raise the reservations for SCs, STs, Other Backward Classes, Extremely Backward Classes, and EWS to 75 per cent from the present 50 per cent. A bill to this effect will be tabled in the assembly in the current session itself, sources said.

'Caste enumeration report has become possible with everyone's consent'

On Tuesday, CM Nitish Kumar said on the caste based economic survey report presented in Bihar Assembly that this caste enumeration has become possible in Bihar with everyone's consent. Recalling a past memory, he said that 33 years ago in 1990, former President Giani Zail Singh was the first to suggest caste based census.

Nitish said that at that time also, "we had met PM VP Singh regarding this matter. Ever since I have been the Chief Minister of Bihar, I have been making efforts for caste-based enumeration, now this has become possible with everyone's consent."

During the discussion in the Assembly, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that after the caste census report, consultations will now be held to increase the reservation. "We want to bring changes on this in this session itself. In this, there will be a separate 10 percent reservation for the economically weaker section," he said.

Reservation proposal of Bihar government

If the proposal of Bihar government is accepted, then according to it, the 16 percent reservation for SC in Bihar will be increased to 20 percent. The one percent reservation available to STs will be increased to 2 percent. At the same time, 43 percent reservation will be given to extremely backward classes i.e. EBC and OBC together.

'Caste census report is scientific'

CM Nitish rejected the allegations of some people raising questions on the caste census report. CM Nitish made it clear that the caste survey report has been prepared scientifically and the number of some castes has neither been increased nor decreased but only their actual number has been shown. The allegations being made are bogus. CM Nitish demanded from the floor of the Assembly that caste census should be conducted in the entire country.

What is the current status of reservation : The current reservation status in the country is 50 percent as per the ceiling imposed by the Supreme Court. Of this, 27 percent reservation is being given to OBC category. Whereas Scheduled Castes have got 15 percent reservation and Scheduled Tribes have got 7.5 percent reservation. In this way, a total of 49.5 percent reservation is being given by the Central Government. In the remaining 50.5%, people from these classes also can compete under general category.