NEW DELHI: Within a week of the Supreme Court judgment upholding EWS reservation, several states have moved swiftly to increase local quotas. Bihar CM
Nitish Kumar has demanded that the Centre remove the 50% ceiling while Jharkhand has raised the total state reservations to 77% by increasing the quantum for SCs/STs/OBCs.
On Sunday, two constituents of the ruling seven-party Mahagathbandhan in Bihar asked CM Nitish Kumar to bring a legislation in the assembly session, starting November 23, to raise the total reservation to 77% from the existing 50% .
A demand has also been raised in Rajasthan that OBC quota should be increased from 21% to 27%.
Also, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have had their legal struggles against special measures adopted for Gujjar and Maratha communities.
The fresh spurt in quota initiatives in the wake of the EWS judgment is reminiscent of how states went on an over drive after the EWS quotas were instituted by Modi government in January 2019. As reported by TOI on March 9, 2019, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan introduced the EWS reservations, and as they took the reservations beyond 50%, they used its cover to introduce separate legislations for caste quotas —while Rajasthan gave 5% reservation to Gujjar and four other castes, MP raised its OBC quota from 14% to 27%.
In both cases, the total reservation went up to 6 4% and 70%, respectively, but later ran into a judicial blockade.