Bihar caste survey has issues, need to be resolved: Amit Shah at Zonal Council meet in Patna

New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday chaired the 26th meeting of the Eastern Zonal Council in Patna. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and senior ministers from Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand were present during the meeting.

In his address, Shah said that there were some issues regarding the caste survey conducted by the Bihar government, which he hoped the state would resolve. He said the Centre never had any intention of creating hurdles in the caste-based survey.

According to a statement issued by the home ministry, Shah said at the meeting that when his party was in power in the state, it had supported the caste-based survey.


"There are some issues regarding the caste survey, which he hoped that the state government would resolve," the statement said, without elaborating.

During the meeting, which lasted for about three hours, Shah said that 1,157 issues have been resolved in the meetings of the zonal councils. He said that in the zonal council meetings, differences on political matters should be avoided and efforts should be made to resolve matters in a liberal manner.

Shah said that many issues of national importance have been included in the agenda of meetings. These include eliminating malnutrition among children, reducing dropout rate of school children, operationalising fast track special courts for speedy probe and disposal of rape cases against women and children. Other issues include creating facilities of banks/ India Post Payment Bank branches within 5 km of each village and formation of 2 lakh new primary agricultural credit societies.