Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das rejects OBC quota expansion to 27 pct

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday ruled out the possibility of increasing the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota from the existing 14 to 27 per cent. The Chief Minister said this while responding to a question raised by Jharkhand Vikas Morcha -Prajatantrik (JVM-P) MLA Pradeep Yadav during Question Hour in the state Assembly.

"The Jharkhand government has announced to implement the 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weak sections in the general category. But does it plan to increase the OBC quota from 14 to 27 per cent? the MLA had asked. In response, the Chief Minister said: "For the last 67 years, no was concerned about the economically weak people belonging to the general category. It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who gave the 10 per cent reservation. The BJP does not indulge in any vote bank politics... But there is no proposal before the state government to increase the OBC quota."

Every Monday when the House is in session, Question Hour runs from 12 p.m. to 12.30 p.m. during which MLAs can question Das on any policy matter. In Jharkhand, tribals, OBC and Scheduled Castes are given a reservation of 27, 14 and 11 per cent, respectively.