Bright poor upper caste students to get help in Bihar

Patna: In a bid to woo upper caste voters, the state government has decided to provide financial assistance to those poor upper caste students of both the majority and minority communities who have secured first division in the matriculation examination of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) from government school. Such students will be paid Rs 10,000, provided their family’s income does not exceed Rs 1.5 lakh per annum.
The financial assistance would be given under the ‘Mukhyamantri Protsahan Yojana’. The target upper castes are Brahmins, Bhumihars, Rajputs and Kayasthas (among the Hindus) and Sheikhs, Syeds and Pathans (among the Muslims).
The government has also decided to introduce scholarships for upper caste poor students from class I to class 10. The details of the criteria are being worked out, said an official.
Besides, henceforth, upper caste people will be given caste certificates. The government on Monday issued a notification to this effect and necessary directions were given to the officials concerned.
These decisions have been taken on the basis of recommendations made by an eight-member expert committee, headed by chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh, to provide assistance to poor upper caste people in the state as per a recent study carried out by the city-based Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI). The study was sponsored by the state commission for upper castes.
According to the study report, the literacy rate for the upper caste population in Bihar is 75.6% in rural areas and 85.9% in urban areas. For the general population, the literacy rate is 59.8% (in rural areas) and 76.9% (urban areas).