Bettiah, Jan. 8: Chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today talked of creating 12 new districts in th estate.

Speaking after inaugurating the 38th annual convention of Bharatiya Tharu Kanyan Mahasangh in Tharu-dominated Belsandi village of West Champaran district on Thursday, Manjhi assured a district of Bagaha any time after March. Tharus are tribals, who have a substantial presence in West Champaran.

'The Bihar government has resolved to create 12 new districts and at least 300 blocks in the state but a notification regarding this is getting delayed owing to technical difficulties,' the chief minister said.

He also assured that Tharus of Champaran would get representation in the state's Tharus Development Authority.

Manjhi exhorted the Tharu youths to avoid liquor for better prospects and said he would never have got the highest place in state politics had his parents not created a friendly and a culturally rich atmosphere in the family.

On the Navrangiya police firing on June 23, 2013, which had claimed six lives and injured at least 25, the chief minister said instead of Rs 5 lakh compensation already given to the families of the dead, they will be paid Rs 2.5 lakh more under the provisions of SC/ST Act once the inquiry report is submitted by the probing judicial commission.

The chief minister also assured a large number of Tharus present on the opening day of the occasion that the two badly injured victims of police firing, who are still undergoing treatment, would be given Rs 4 lakh for their treatment, while the rest would get Rs 1 lakh each as treatment cost.

Manjhi added that instead of Patna, the remaining probe would be completed in West Champaran.

Following a demand by the Tharus, Manjhi also assured to look into the problems of jungle-dwellers and said the cases in which several members of the Tharu community were made accused by the forest department for uprooting stone pillars forcibly erected over their cultivable lands would be withdrawn after completion of inquiry pending in the matter.