Bihar reservation bill: All members of the Assembly vote in favour of the bill, raising the quota from 50% to 65%
A bill to raise reservations in government jobs and educational institutions from the current 60% (including 10% that the Centre mandates for the economically weaker sections) to 75% was approved by the Bihar Assembly on Thursday, according to PTI. A quota of 18% is allocated to other backward classes (OBCs), 25% to extremely backward classes (EBCs), 20% to scheduled castes (SCs), and 2% to scheduled tribes (STs) under the newly proposed bill. The decision was made two days after the Bihar cabinet approved the plan to raise the reservation during a special meeting. Back then, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had declared that the Bill would be introduced to raise the quota for backward classes based on their population share in the state and the results of a caste survey conducted there. The Bihar government released its first set of caste survey results on October 2 of this year, and it showed that 64% of the state's population is in the backward classes, which include other backward classes (OBCs) and extremely backward classes (EBCs).