**Bhubaneswar: ** Stressing upon timely issuance of caste certificates to the bona fide school students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Castes (OBC) categories, Odisha Chief Secretary has issued directions to the Collectors, School & Mass Education Department and ST & SC Development officials to comply it by December this year positively.
Reviewing on its progress at the State Secretariat here through video conferencing on Saturday, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padi directed those officials to prepare a field level database of those students who have till date been issued with the caste certificate and who are yet to be issued with. September has been given as the deadline for the database preparation, a press note said.
Participating in the video conferencing, ST & SC Development Commissioner-cum-Secretary Surendra Kumar said that the caste certificate is being provided to the students from Class V to Class XII.
He also said that the concerned parents will have to apply for it to the school authority. Those applications will be collected by the Social Welfare Extension Officers and Block Education Officers from the schools and upload in the e-district portal and apply for it in the concerned Tehsil offices. After receipt of those applications, the Tehsildars will make enquiry into them within 4-6 weeks and give seal of approval of the caste certificates. After approval, a copy of the e-certificate will be issued to each of the applicant students by the concerned Block Education Officer or the Social Welfare Extension Officer within two weeks of the approval.
The District Collectors through the video conferencing on the day were instructed to get the caste certificates prepared on a mission mode and distributed at the school level, the press release said.