Rajasthan assembly session to start from October 23

Jaipur: The 14th Rajasthan Legislative Assembly’s ninth session will start from the October 23. Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh has summoned this session, an official release said. Further information about the session will soon be released by the assembly secretariat. It is likely that the session will be held for 3 days; however, the final decision on this will be taken in the advisory committee’s meeting.

Meanwhile, the state government is busy finalizing the bills to be presented in this session. It is likely that a bill to increase the OBC quota from the existing 21% to the proposed 26% will be presented in the session. As per the agreement reached on Gurjars reservation issue, the government had decided to raise OBC quota from 21% to 26% and create a separate category within it to allow 5% quota to Gujjars and other ‘most backward OBC’ communities. The total reservation in the state stands at 49% at present and this is set to once again cross the 50% legal limit.

The government is also facing a new challenge of EBC (economic backward class) who want 14 per cent reservation. A meeting was held on Monday between the social justice minister Arun Chaturvedi and representatives of Rajput outfits. The minister assured them to finalize a survey of the backward upper castes till December to initiate the procedure of giving them the reservation.

In March earlier this year, the assembly had passed the State Commission for Backward Classes Bill, 2017 with a voice vote following a debate on the various reservation related issues raised by the legislators. The Bill replaced the Rajasthan Commission for Backward Classes Ordinance, 2016 promulgated on October 21 last year by Governor Kalyan Singh as the Assembly was not in session.