In a historic move, the Bihar Legislative Assembly has passed the Bihar Reservation Amendment Bill with unanimous support. The bill aims to redefine reservation limits for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), surpassing the previous 50 per cent cap and pushing it to 65 per cent.
The government clarified that, with the existing 10 per cent Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) quota under a separate Act, the total reservation now effectively reaches 75 per cent, leaving 25 per cent unreserved.The bill now awaits the final approval of Governor Rajendra Arlekar before becoming law.
Under the new proposal, OBCs would receive an 18 per cent quota, EBCs 25 per cent, Scheduled Castes 20 per cent, and Scheduled Tribes 2 per cent. This marks a significant increase from the earlier quotas, with OBCs having 8 per cent, EBCs 12 per cent, Scheduled Castes 14 per cent, and Scheduled Tribes 10 per cent. The 3 per cent quota for the poor in the general category and women has been reevaluated, with women now having a 35 per cent reservation in jobs.
