Patna, Sept. 10: The Bihar chapter of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) was launched today with state and central leaders cutting across party lines promising their support and stressing the need for economic development of the people belonging to the scheduled caste (SC).

Union minister for law and justice, electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was supposed to inaugurate the chapter, could not turn up due to personal and official engagements. But he did send a video message, saying the occasion was the beginning of a new age of social equality and harmony in Bihar.

"I had requested Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry founder chairman Milind Kamble to open a Bihar chapter for the educated Dalit youth who aspire to become entrepreneurs. They could get a benefit of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore loans under Stand-up India scheme," Prasad said.

Bihar finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui pointed out that the chapter was being opened here after 10 years of its establishment and it denoted that there was delay from the organisation's side in coming to the state.

"Our gross state domestic product is increasing and people are now saying that Bihar has potential. People from here have gone to Mauritius, Fiji and Surinam. Society and nation develop when there is harmony and peace. It has been our misfortune that there have been discrimination among human beings despite constitutional provisions against them and a big section of society has remained neglected," Siddiqui said.

The finance minister added that agro industries, handloom and small industries could develop in Bihar and said the Centre should accord special category status to the state to ensure industrial growth.