Chief Minister Raman Singh has issued a directive that students of standard 10th and 12th, belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, should be compulsorily awarded their caste certificates before they pass out from school.
The Chief Minister issued the directive at the meeting of Chhattisgarh Tribal Advisory Council, at the Vidhan Sabha premises on Tuesday evening. In the meeting, various subjects of socio-economic interest for tribal communities were discussed in detail in presence of MlAs from tribal areas of State and senior officials of the State Government.
While presiding over the meeting, Singh said the State Government has already simplified the process of caste certificate issuance. Now, the responsibility of issuing caste certificates to school students under the simplified provisions by coordinating with the concerned departments is with district collectors, officials of Tribal and Scheduled Caste Development Department and the principals of respective schools.
The Chief Minister also said that to simplify the process of caste certificate issuance, the General Administration Department (GAD) has already issued notification under Chhattisgarh Scheduled Caste, Tribe and OBC (Social Situation Authentication Regulation) Rules 2013, which was published in Chhattisgarh Gazette on September 2, 2013 and was sent to key departments on September 26, 2013. Moreover, collectors have also been issued directives through video conferencing in August last year.
In the meeting, the proposal of transferring schools of Tribal and Scheduled Caste Development Department and Urban Development Department to School Education Department was also deliberated upon. The Chief Minister has also provided in-principle consent to the proposal to the School Education Department and assured that after detailed examination, the proposal would be taken into consideration in the Cabinet meeting.
Officials in the meeting informed that taking immediate action on the State Government’s manifesto of year 2013 as per the directives of the CM, all 421 forest villages have been upgraded to revenue villages before January 26. De-notification of nearly 20,000 hectares of land has been done in these villages.
It was also informed in the meeting that as per the decisions taken in the previous meeting of the Tribal Advisory Council, Forest Department has issued notification to declare five small forest produce — Mahua seeds, Chiraunji, Tamarind, laakh and Kosa as specified forest produce. The Chief Minister directed officials that copy of the notification should be distributed to all the members and MlAs.
Singh said the decisions of Tribal Advisory Council are being seriously acted upon. In the same sequence, local youth of districts under Bastar and Sarguja divisions are being recruited on vacant Grade III and Grade IV posts. Till date, thousands of youths have been recruited in Government service.
It has also been decided that under the prescribed percentage of reservation for Scheduled Tribes in these villages, maximum 20 per cent of the posts shall be filled through direct recruitment of candidates from special backward classes, without following the standard selection process. General Administr-ation has issued notification in the context on May 21, 2013.
Officials informed that 968 female home guards have been recruited for girls’ hostels in Chhattisgarh. The Chief Minister said that if any female home guard has not taken charge for the reason that formal verification of her certificates is in process, then such home guards should be made to join immediately and remaining process should be completed afterwards.
In the meeting, members conveyed the problems that arise due to spelling mistakes in the names of several tribes. On which, the Chief Minister said that a four-member delegation led by Tribal Department Minister Kedar Kashyap had met the then Union Minister of Tribal Affairs on September 10, 2013 and had requested action in the aforementioned context.
In the same sequence, Kashyap met present Union Minister of Tribal Affairs on July 8, 2014 and informed him in the context. The Union Minister has assured of taking positive action in the matter. Singh said that Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Jual Oram would be invited to Chhattisgarh and several issues related to tribal development would be discussed with him.