Manjhi goes into overdrive to enhance Dalit leader

Patna:Amidst speculation that he could be replaced as Bihar Chief Minister after the merger of Janata Parivar parties, Jitan Ram Manjhi seems to have taken an aggressive stance of enhancing his profile as the leader of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Manjhi on Sunday called a meeting of over 300 SC/ST officials up to the level of IAS rank and took a slew of important decisions, including review of suspension and dismissal of over 250 SC/ST employees, from clerks to additional district magistrate rank, that were ordered during the tenure of his predecessor, Nitish Kumar. The Chief Minister has reportedly asked his Principal Secretary Amrit Lal Meena to seek review of such dismissals with immediate effect.

The government is also mulling the option of appointing reservation commissioner to monitor implementation of the government’s reservation policy. Manjhi may introduce reservation for single post at district level such as health society manager to “extend maximum” benefit to the SC/STs.

There are speculations of Manjhi planning to replace Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh with any Scheduled Castes IAS officer. Recently, Manjhi had carried out a major bureaucratic reshuffle in which key posts went to Scheduled Castes officials.

When asked about his “special” meeting with “SC/ST officials”, the Chief Minister on Monday defended it saying there was nothing wrong in it. “Such meetings used to take place even during Nitish Kumar’s time but the media did not publicise them. Now since I did it, it has become a subject of discussion. This was not the first such meeting. It was the fourth (such) I held,” he said after he held Janata Darbar meeting at his official residence at 1, Anne Marg. “When there is pain in legs, you do not look for treatment of headache,” he then quipped.

The Chief Minister said he had no knowledge if Nitish Kumar wanted to return as CM. “I may have said the next CM should also be a Dalit but that does not mean Manjhi only. I reiterate that Nitishji wanted me to run the government while he took care of the party,” he said.

Source: The Indian Express