Guwahati, August 1: Caste certificates to students in Assam will now be issued online, replacing the manual system.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday launched ‘Mission Bhumiputra’, a simplified way to issue digitalised caste certificates, with the inauguration of a portal at a programme held at Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra here.
Implemented by the departments of tribal affairs (plain) and social justice empowerment, the mission has been implemented to carry forward the government’s mission of easy service to people.
From August 8 onwards, the deputy commissioners will submit the format of applications for caste certificates to the headmasters of educational institutions.
The headmasters will fill up the application formats for their onward submission to the deputy commissioners who will then forward the applications to the boards of respective caste or tribe.
The DC will thereafter convene a meeting with the boards to decide on the protocol for issuing caste certificates to the students.
If any doubt in the process crops up, the application may be sent for further verification.
The certificates will be available in the digi locker under the IT Act with digitally signed by the respective deputy commissioners.
Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister also said that earlier, before joining any government job, a person had to bear encumbrances to secure such documents.
“However, with the launch of Mission Bhumiputra such problems will be solved without any glitch,” Sarma said.
From next year, students from Class VIII can apply for caste certificates through this portal which will also be linked with the CM’s dashboard to enable the chief minister’s office to monitor the entire process.
The chief minister also asked the departments of tribal affairs (plain) and social justice empowerment to generate awareness on the new initiative.
“As a part of the government’s commitment to the welfare of the people belonging to different tribes, along with the launch of Basundhara-II, the government will release a tribal land policy,” he said.
The chief minister also said that the government has laid emphasis on issuing EWS (economically weaker section) certificates to people as steps would be taken to issue such certificates to students from Class VIII onwards.
