Subhechcha Ganguly 
The Chhattisgarh Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly passed two laws increasing the overall reservation in the state to 76%, making Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand the highest reservation states in terms of public jobs and enrollment in educational institutions.
Both the Chhattisgarh Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Bill and the Chhattisgarh Public Service (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes Reservation) Amendment Bill were introduced by Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and passed after more than five hours of discussion.According to the bills, Scheduled Tribes will receive a quota of 32%, Other Backward Classes will receive a quota of 27%, Scheduled Caste will receive a quota of 13%, and the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) will receive a quota of 4% for public employment and admissions to educational institutions. In response to questions about the bills, Baghel claimed that the Quantifiable Data Commission, which his government established in 2019 to interview state residents who fall under the OBC and EWS categories, could not be formed by earlier BJP administrations.
The chief minister further said that the COVID-19 outbreak caused a delay in the commission’s procedure. According to the commission’s recently-submitted recommendations to the state government, the population of the state is made up of 42.41% OBCs and 3.48% EWSs.
