The Bihar government has recommended 'Jan Nayak' Karpoori Thakur, Raj Kumar Shukla and 'Mountain Man' Dashrath Manjhi to the Union government for Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award of the country.

Cabinet secretariat department principal secretary Brijesh Mehrotra said: 'Apart from the names of Karpoori Thakur, Raj Kumar Shukla and Dashrath Manjhi, names of two doctors - Gopal Prasad Sinha (neurophysician) and Rajvardhan Azad (eye surgeon and retina specialist) - have been recommended for Padma Bhushan, which is awarded for distinguished service of high order.' Madhubani painting artist Godavari Dutta and folk singer Nitu Kumar have been recommended for Padma Shri, awarded for distinguished service.

The cabinet secretariat department has made the recommendations after having meetings at the chief secretary-level followed by the consent of chief minister Nitish Kumar. Though no formal applications are necessary for Bharat Ratna and the Prime Minister makes required recommendations to the President for those on whom it is to be bestowed, states, organisations, institutions and people could raise a demand for the award to be given to any particular person.

The conferment of Bharat Ratna, which was constituted in 1954, has been limited to three in a particular year. It is considered the ultimate recognition of exceptional service or performance of the highest order in any field of human endeavour.

Nitish has been raising the demand for Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur for several years, but it has remained unheeded so far. A freedom fighter, socialist leader and former chief minister of Bihar, Karpoori Thakur, was born in a Dalit family on January 24, 1924, at Pitaunjhia village (now called Karpoori Gram) in Samastipur.

Raj Kumar Shukla, born in 1875 at Satwaria village in West Champaran, was instrumental in convincing Mahatma Gandhi at the Congress session in Lucknow in 1916 to visit Bihar and see the plight of indigo farmers at the hands of the British plantation owners.

Mountain Man Manjhi (1934 to 2007) was a poor labourer residing at Gehlaur in Gaya. He chiselled a 110-m-long, 9.1-metre-wide and 7.6-metre-deep path through a hillock, thereby shortening the travel distance to Gaya town from 55km to 15km.