Chattisgarh passes bills to hike OBC, SC quotas

The two bills — The Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Act and an amendment bill related to admission in educational institutions — were tabled in the assembly during a special session.

The Chhattisgarh assembly on Friday unanimously passed two amendment bills hiking reservation in admissions and government jobs in the state for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Caste (SC) communities, in line with the proportion of their populations.

The two bills — The Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Act and an amendment bill related to admission in educational institutions — were tabled in the assembly during a special session on Friday.

The legislation proposes to hike the OBC quota to 27% from the present 14% and the SC quota to 13% from 12%, in line with the population of these two communities. The quota for Scheduled Tribe (ST) communities remains unchanged.

Besides, a provision of 4% reservation has also been provided to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), taking the total extent of reservation in the state to 76%.

“I have requested all MLAs of the legislative assembly to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the leadership of the assembly speaker and request him to include the reservation bills under ninth schedule of Indian constitution,” said chief minister Bhupesh Baghel after the session.

Hitting out at the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said: “The BJP in 7 years could not form a Quantifiable Data Commission. The state government formed it but Covid-19 pandemic delayed the process,” Baghel.

Leader of Opposition Narayan Chandel, however, dismissed the CM’s claim saying there was no data to back the commission report.

“If the government claims that based on the proportion of population, reservation has been given, then there is no data. BJP leaders demanded 16% reservation for the Scheduled Caste category and 10% reservation for the EWS,” he added.

On August 15, 2019, the Chhattisgarh government had announced that it will increase the SC and OBC quotas for admissions and jobs in the state but the move was challenged in the state high court.

In October 2019, the court had directed the state government to not proceed with an ordinance that hiked the quantum of OBC reservation from 14% to 27% and also criticised the Congress-led administration.

In September this year, the high court reduced the reservation quota for tribals from 32% to 20%, rendering the state government’s 2012 order which raised the ST quota toothless.

Various groups within the community have been staging protests demanding restoration of the 32% quota.

In 2012, the high court had termed as unconstitutional a move by the government to hike the overall quota of reservations in the state to 58%.