Patna, March 3: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today said the Centre should constitute an independent commission on the lines of the Election Commission to identify people living under the below poverty line (BPL).

“Once an independent body identifies people under the BPL category, they would be able to avail of benefits of schemes being run by the Centre and state governments,” he said while addressing the two-day All India Meet of State Legal Service Authorities.

Stressing the need for legal literacy programme, Nitish said it was imperative to expand the ambit of legal service and aid so that people could know about various laws enacted for them and enjoy benefits of the schemes.

“We started mobile lok adalats in 2006, which have so far disposed of 3.91 lakh cases across the state. Similarly, lok adalats have also disposed of four lakh cases. It is a big achievement. Had these eight lakh cases not been disposed of, the courts would have been over burdened,” he said.

Replying to Patna High Court chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit’s point vis-à-vis the state government being the biggest litigants, the chief minister said the government has decided such cases must be heard and disposed of at the official level.

Sharing his six years of experience at janata darbar, Nitish said most of the cases were related to land disputes. He added that keeping this in mind, the government decided to set up a land dispute tribunal, which would especially hear such cases at the state-level. The deputy collector of land reforms would hear the cases at district-level. He, however, made it clear that necessary infrastructure for the tribunal would be made available so that it could start functioning at the earliest.

Addressing the seminar, Supreme Court judge Justice Altamas Kabir stressed the need for legal awareness and literacy rate programmes to educate common people, especially poor and underprivileged about their rights to avail benefits of various schemes.

“The objective of legal awareness programmes is to sensitise people about their rights. National Legal Service Authority (Nalsa) has been organising legal aid camps, clinics and aid centres across the country. These centres have helped the poor and downtrodden,” Justice Kabir said.

The seminar that was organised by Nalsa and co-hosted by Bihar State Legal Service Authority in association with the state government.