CM Nitish Kumar had last month decided to extend all schemes run by Mahadalit Vikas Mission.

(File)Patna:  Continuing his effort to insulate his party from the perceived resentment among the Dalit community following last month's violent protests, the Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar on Tuesday announced special grants for civil services aspirants from the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe who clear the preliminary exam.As part of the initiative being described as a first-of-its-kind, the government will give a Rs 50,000 grant to aspirants from the SC or ST community who clear the Bihar Public Service Commission's preliminary exam and Rs 1 lakh to those who crack the tougher exam conducted by the centre's recruitment body, Union Public Service Commission, or UPSC.Government sources said about 1,500 students from the two reserved categories clear the first stage of the recruitment examination by the state-level public service commission.

An average of 200 more students from these communities clear the civil services preliminary examination conducted by UPSC.

The preliminary examinations are aimed at screening out the non-serious candidates; those who make the grade are put through a tougher, detailed examination and an interview.The Nitish Kumar cabinet, Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said, has also decided to provide 15 kg of grain per month - rice and wheat - to every student staying in the hostels meant for SCs, STs, Extremely Backward Castes, Other Backward Classes and the minority communities.A leader from Nitish Kumar's party Janata Dal Secular suggested the Cabinet decisions would also help ensure that the anger building up among Dalits against the BJP does not scorch the JDS.

Last year, Nitish Kumar had pulled the plug on its grand alliance with Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress and swapped them for the BJP.As part of this attempt, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had last month decided to extend all schemes run by Mahadalit Vikas Mission to people from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe, a sharp contrast to the BJP's perceived inability to protect the interests of dalits and tribals.It is a perception that had driven several BJP lawmakers from the dalit community in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to go public with their advice to the party to do more for the depressed community.It is a situation that Nitish Kumar can ill-afford.

Dalits alone make up nearly 15 per cent of Bihar's voters.

And the opposition RJD trying to cash in on the Dalit outrage ahead of the 2019 elections.