Nitish calls for hike in SC, ST, OBC quotas; bill likely to be tabled in Assembly session

Outlining the new policy intent of his government on affirmative action in sync with the political blueprint of the I.N.D.I.A allies for 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday proposed a quantum jump in reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes in the state from the current 50% to 65%.

With 10% of seats reserved for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), the proposal once implemented would take the total reservations in Bihar to 75%.

“We will do the needful after due consultations. We intend to bring in the required legislation in the ongoing session,” Kumar said as his government tabled the recently conducted caste survey report in the Assembly.

The statement comes just a day after Home Minister Amit Shah at a rally in Muzaffarpur questioned the caste enumeration data in Bihar suggesting that the percentage of Yadavs and Muslims was inflated. With the noise growing around caste count which was last conducted in 1931, the BJP has also started confabulations to crystallise its stand of a nationwide caste census.

The new quota regime proposed in Bihar breaches the 50% threshold set by the Supreme Court in the Indira Sawhney case and iterates the political push by the Mandal parties and the Congress to implement affirmative action on the basis of proportional representation.

Backed by the Bihar numbers, the Nitish Kumar government is proposing to increase SC reservations from 16% to 20%, and ST from 1% to 2%.

The highest quantum jump is being proposed in the OBC category — from 30% to 43%.

The current 30% of seats reserved in government jobs and educational institutions are divided between backward classes and extremely backward classes in the ratio of 2:3.

The survey estimates 94 lakh families in Bihar are poor, surviving on a monthly income of Rs 6,000 or less. The JD(U) leader said his government is mooting a proposal to provide assistance of Rs 2 lakh each to poor families. The initial findings of the report were made public early last month and pegged the OBC population of backward and extremely backward classes to be more than 60%. The survey said the upper caste together comprise less than 10% of the total headcount.

The Bihar CM has been a vociferous votary of holding a nationwide caste census to ascertain the socio-economic status of various

communities.

Among the I.N.D.I.A bloc, the Congress as a party and Rahul Gandhi in particular have picked up the demand for a caste enumeration which the party has made a calling card in the ongoing Assembly polls and the next Lok Sabha polls.

Speaking on the floor of the House on Tuesday, Nitish Kumar hoped that the Modi government would reconsider his the request for a nationwide census.