Patna, Aug. 5: The Bihar government has failed to keep its words as far as holding the second meeting of the agriculture cabinet is concerned.

During the first meeting of the agriculture cabinet, held on April 26 this year, the government had announced that the next sitting would be held on June 15.

But that meeting is yet to be held and the government is yet to announce a date for the second meeting of the agriculture cabinet, probably the first such anywhere in the country.

The failure to call a sitting assumes significance as there are talks of scripting the beginning of the second green revolution in the country from Bihar. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has repeatedly said he stood for taking the agriculture sector of the state to a level where every Indian plate had something from the state.

The first meeting was seen as the government’s determination to use this separate cabinet as a vehicle to achieve the desired results in agriculture.

Worse, the government has also failed to mobilise the departments concerned to submit the reports pertaining to the steps needed to be taken for the growth of the agriculture sector.

At the first meeting, a decision was taken to set up 14 committees (see table), consisting of the departments concerned and which deal with sectors that are linked to the development of agriculture. It was stated that these committees would submit first report latest by June 15. But the majority of these committees are yet to submit their reports even after one-and-a-half-months of the deadline.

“Eleven of the 14 committees have not readied their report and this has been a major factor for not holding the second meeting of the agriculture cabinet,” a highly placed government source said.

Agriculture principal secretary Ashok Kumar Sinha said: “Deliberations of the committees are continuing on a regular basis and our department keeps a close tab on the developments taking place in these meetings.”

He, however, admitted that the reports of just three committees would be put up for discussion in the second sitting of the agriculture cabinet. “The reports of committees on agriculture production, animal husbandry production and fisheries production would be taken up for discussion during the second meeting of the agriculture cabinet,” Sinha said.

Sinha said the second meeting was likely to be held in the first or second week of August.