Patna/Bettiah: Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday rooted for reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) members according to their proportion in the population after the 2021 census.
"The demand for increasing reservation is raised time and again. Members of the SC and ST communities will be able to derive reservation according to their proportion in the population after the 2021 census," Nitish said. However, he also clarified that providing reservation to SC and ST members according to their population proportion was not in the hands of the state government.
Nitish was speaking at Binwalia under the jurisdiction of Harnatand panchayat in West Champaran district after inaugurating the 40th annual convention of Bharatiya Tharu Kalyan Mahasangh (a body of Tharu tribe living in India), amid praises by the organisation secretary Rajkumar Mahto. Women belonging to the tribe performed a colourful Jhamta dance in his welcome.
Minority welfare department and sugarcane department minister Feroze Ahmad alias Khurshid Alam, Valmikinagar MP Satish Chandra Dubey, MLAs Dhirendra Pratap Singh alias Rinku Singh and Vinay Bihari, chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, Tharu Mahasangh president Deep Narayan Prasad and others were present on the occasion.
Speaking further, the chief minister played to the gallery and iterated his government's commitment towards the welfare of SC and ST members. He mentioned many schemes launched recently for the welfare of SC and ST school students, youths who compete in the UPSC and BPSC civil services preliminary examinations as well as entrepreneurs who want to establish their units.
Nitish reminisced how he and other leaders, including socialist leader George Fernandes, had worked to ensure ST status for the Tharus during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the Centre. "I used to often meet the then ST welfare minister when I was the railway minister. I talked to him about the Tharus and got them included on the Scheduled Tribe list."
"We also started Tharuhat Development Authority and provided Rs 97 crore between 2010-11 and 2017-18 for 260 projects of which 239 have been completed. We have provisioned Rs 28 crore during the current financial year," he added.
Nitish pointed that four out of five schools had been built for ST members at Rs 59 crore, while the state has also provided Rs 35 crore to expand the capacity of the Centre's Eklavya residential model school from 400 to 720 seats.
He added that he had asked the district magistrate to send a report on shifting the Bagaha - II block headquarters to Sindhav.
The reverberations of sugarcane growers' problems, which have been chronic in West and East Champaran districts for the past many years, was also felt during the programme. "God willing, the payment of sugarcane growers pending with factories will be taken care of in two months," assured Khurshid Alam.
