The Jharkhand Assembly on Friday passed two bills related to the domicile policy on reserving 100 per cent government jobs in third and fourth grade for the locals in the state, and increasing Other Backward Classes' (OBC) reservation from 14 to 27 per cent.
The bills were passed by voice vote in a special one-day session, convened by the state government. The assembly also passed a resolution to include both these bills in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.
Both these bills will take the form of law if the Centre includes them in the Schedule. It is also to be noted that the laws included in the Ninth Schedule cannot be challenged in the court.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren while describing the bills as historic, added that the previous government reduced the OBC reservation in the state.
Rejecting the objections of the opposition, Soren said that a tribal is no longer a "boka" (stupid).
The reservation for Scheduled Castes will be increased from 10 per cent to 12 per cent and for Scheduled Tribes from 26 per cent to 28 per cent.
A provision of 10 per cent reservation has been made for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS). By this, the overall reservation in the state will be increased from 50 to 77 per cent.
The second bill that was passed pertains to the Domicile Policy in the state, according to which a person will be considered a resident of the state only if their name or the name of their ancestors is mentioned in the land survey (Khatiyan) conducted in 1932 or earlier.
People whose ancestors have been living in the state since 1932 or earlier, but do not have their names in the Khatiyan due to non-availability of land, will be considered domicile on the basis of their identification by the Gram Sabha. Only state domiciles will get reservation in the state.
A provision to appoint locals in all 3rd and 4th grade government jobs has also been added in the bill.
The government called a session for the second time in a span of 67 days. Earlier, in the session on September 5, the government passed a motion of trust vote.
It is a first in the state's legislative assembly of 23 years that two special sessions have been convened in the intervening period of two regular sessions.