Chhattisgarh: quota in state increased to 76% after govt clears 2 amendment bills

The Chhattisgarh Assembly on Friday unanimously passed two amendment bills related to reservation in government jobs and admission in educational institutions in proportion to population of different categories, taking the total quota in the state to 76 per cent.

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel tabled the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Bill and Chhattisgarh Educational Institutions (Reservation in admission) Amendment Bill, which were passed after a debate of more than five hours.

As per the bills, Scheduled Tribes will get quota of 32 per cent, Other Backward Classes 27 per cent, Scheduled Caste 13 per cent, while 4 per cent has been provisioned for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in public employment and admissions in educational institutions.

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Answering the discussion on the bills, Baghel said the previous BJP governments could not form a Quantifiable Data Commission, which was constituted by his government in 2019 to survey people belonging to OBC and EWS categories in the state.

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the commission's process, the chief minister added.

The commission recently submitted its recommendations to the state government, according to which the state's population includes 42.41per cent OBCs and 3.48 per cent EWSs.

Baghel further said he has requested MLAs of all parties to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi under the leadership of the Assembly speaker and request him to enlist these amendment bills under Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.