Bhopal, July 23: The Madhya Pradesh government on Tuesday passed a bill providing 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the state. The bill was passed unanimously by the assembly. Currently, the OBC’s are getting 14 percent reservation.

Earlier, the state government issued an ordinance to increase reservation for OBCs ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2019 in March. Madhya Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel had approved the ordinance, before the general elections code of conduct came into effect.

Meanwhile, the Scheduled Castes are getting 16 percent reservation in Madhya Pradesh, while there is 20 percent reservation for Schedule Tribes in the state. According to the data, OBCs constitute nearly 52 per cent of the state's population. In March this year, Chief Minister Kamal Nath also had announced to implement the 10 percent quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) in government jobs.

In 2003, the Congress government under the leadership of Digvijay Singh had decided to increase the OBC reservation to 27 percent. The decision could not be implemented as the Congress had suffered defeat in the assembly elections and the Bharatiya Janata Party came to the power.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 23, 2019 04:18 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).