MillenniumPost
Bengal

Jhargram: As many as 204 persons, including a WBCS officer, caught producing false caste certificate

Kolkata: Jhargram district administration has cancelled false caste certificates of 204 people including an officer of West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS).

The accused WBCS officer Apurba Karmakar is now working as a joint Block Development Officer. The district administration has cancelled the caste certificates of Karmakar and his son Sanket. The joint BDO did not turn up for two hearings which had been fixed on November 13 and 23.

However, the other persons who had been caught with having false certificates had appeared on the hearing which had been held on November 12 and 13 and got their certificates scrapped. Karmakar's SC certificate has been cancelled for knowingly misrepresenting facts, furnishing false information and suppression of facts along with knowingly suppressing material information and for producing false documents. The inquiry was conducted by the sub-divisional officer of Jhargram Babulal Mahato following the instruction of the District Magistrate Jayashi Dasgupta.

The Jhargram district administration has issued 50,000 caste certificates in the past three months. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has instructed all the district administration to take up the issuance of caste certificates seriously and ensure that no beneficiary is harassed. In all the administrative review meetings she inquires about the issuance of caste certificates. It may be mentioned, earlier people had to run from the pillar to post to get caste certificates. Two senior WBCS officers had been sent to the village under Silda police station from where the Karmakars have hailed. They spoke to the people and examined the family documents including the last deed. Karmakars are enlisted as OBC by the backward Classes Welfare Department.

It states that "the Karmakars is the metal working caste of Bengal and Bihar distinguished from the Lohar by not confining themselves to the fabrication of iron implements and by having no scruples about working with any kind of metal. A small member of Karmakar have taken to agriculture and trade, and among them a few hold the position of Zamindars or tenure holders while the majority are occupancy raiyats. The Karmakars, in Bengal, included among the Upper Nine of the Sudra castes."

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