Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today expressed strong displeasure over tardy pace of work in preparation of report by a commission constituted for welfare of forward castes in the state.
“They have spend over Rs 15 crore so far but has not written even a line of report,” Manjhi said reacting strongly over “Savarna Aayog” (commission for forward castes) functioning.
Manjhi made this angry comment to Principal Secretary of General Administration Department D S Gangwar over telephone in presence of mediapersons in his chamber in the Assembly.
He directs Gangwar to convey this to the commission which has been constituted by the department on government direction.
He said “ask the Chairman if was unable to deliver another person could be given chance”.
Dinesh Kumar Trivedi is the Chairman of the Savarna Aayog while Mohammad Abbas is Vice Chairman and Madhurani Thakur Secretary.
The Chief Minister became angry after a group of ruling JD(U) legislators including Manjit Kumar Singh complained to him on functioning of the commission.
The JD(U), BJP coalition government led by Nitish Kumar had in January 2011 decided to set up Savarna Aayog, a commission to identify the deprived and underprivileged families among upper castes.
The decision was taken after the state cabinet okayed the proposal to set up the commission which will have a chairman, a vice-chairman and three members.
The commission was given the mandate to study economic and educational backwardness among the upper castes across the state, identify such backward families and individuals and suggest ways for their uplift.
Manjhi has on several occasions said his government wishes to provide land and assistance to poor among forward castes like dalits.
When contacted, Vice Chairman of the Savarna Aayog Mohammad Abbas told PTI that ADRI (Asian Development Research Institute), a society of a group of social scientists has been entrusted with the task and they have promised to provide the commission report by March 2015.
He said no caste based census is available for the state since 1931. ADRI has been entrusted with the task to carry survey across the state on socio-economic condition of forward castes in the state.
