Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced on Tuesday that the Bihar government is planning to introduce legislation to increase reservations for OBCs, SCs, and STs for admission to educational institutions and public recruitment. This comes just hours after the government presented socioeconomic data from the caste survey.
Kumar averred, “Bihar has done detailed work to bring all the facts before everyone. After 75% quota, there will be 25% free seats. Increase in quota will allow OBC and EBC to have larger share in tune with their population.”
“I will urge the Centre to see how we have done and do caste census across the country. It will benefit the poor in the real sense. We will share all our data with the Centre and apprise it of the steps we would take to tackle poverty. We will bring a Bill in the present session only,” he further added.
The proposal to increase reservations to 75% was approved later that evening by the Cabinet, which is chaired by Nitish Kumar. The measure will allocate 18% of the quota to the backward classes, 25% to the extremely backward classes (EBCs), 20% to the SCs, 2% to the STs, and 10% to the upper caste’s economically weaker sections (EWS). Undoubtedly, this will surpass the 50% cap established by the Supreme Court.
Wednesday or Thursday might see the bill introduced in the House, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
“We plan to give one time assistance of ₹2 lakh to each of the poor families so that they could start their own venture of their liking. Besides, 63,850 families have been found to be homeless. We have a policy to give them ₹60,000 for land, which be increased to ₹1 lakh so that they could buy their land. There is already a policy for ₹1.20 lakh assistance for building house. We will launch a campaign to cover all of them,” he continued.
Additionally, Kumar informed the House that the demand for a caste census was longstanding and that former president Gyani Zail Singh had initially informed him of its significance. He later discussed the issue with prominent socialist leaders, including Madhu Limaye, Madhu Dandavate, and the late Vice President Singh.
Kumar added, “Those who say their caste number has come down or some castes have inflated figures, are talking crap, as this is the first caste survey after 1931. How do they know their numbers without any study?”
“In 2019 and 2020, both Houses of the Bihar Legislature unanimously passed the resolution for caste-based count and later an all-party delegation also met the Prime Minister in this regard. There, it emerged that the Centre would not do, but the states could do and we moved ahead. Efforts were made to prevent it through courts, which delayed the process, but ultimately both the high court and the Supreme Court clearly said there was nothing wrong with it,” Kumar mentioned.
“A large number of people were deployed for the job after proper training. But I always say that the Centre should do caste census. Now the census is overdue and with the next census they could do it. It will have only benefits,” he further added.
Earlier, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Kumar Choudhary stated that the Patna High Court’s ruling, which noted the following, sufficiently demonstrated the constitutionality of the exercise: “We find the action of the state to be perfectly valid, initiated with due competence, with the legitimate aim of providing ‘development with justice.”
“It will be a reference document for social researchers in the decades to come. Its importance cannot be appreciated in true measure today,” he stated.
While applauding the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) administration for taking this positive move, BJP leaders requested the chief minister to investigate the issues expressed.
