Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Assembly here on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill providing 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state. The OBCs currently get 14 per cent reservation. With this, the Kamal Nath government has fulfilled yet another pre-poll promise. Till now, OBCs have 14% reservation in government jobs and state educational institutions. However, ahead of assembly polls, Congress had promised to raise the same to 27%.
The bill came up for discussion during proceedings at MP assembly on Tuesday and afterwards the House cleared it with a voice vote. Meanwhile, Public Relations and Law minister PC Sharma did not spare a chance to assault BJP over the same. After the bill was cleared, Sharma took a potshot at opposition BJP saying the party was in government for 15 years with majority of tenure under an OBC man—Shivraj Singh Chouhan, so why it could not implement the same in its rule.
During the discussion, the MLAs taking part in the debate underlined the need for extending this additional reservation benefits to those who are needy and to be ensured that those well off from the category don’t avail benefits. Parliamentary Affairs minister Govind Singh promised the House to keep this in mind while implementing the same.
Notably, the Kamal Nath cabinet had on July 6 cleared this proposal for 27% for OBCs –which comprise almost 52% of the population in Madhya Pradesh. All the three BJP Chief Ministers since 2003 including Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur and Shivraj Singh Chouhan represented this category.