Chennai: National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) chairman P.L. Punia on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction over situation of dalits in Tamil Nadu and the state is one among the top five states that witness more atrocities against dalits. “The overall situation is unsatisfactory,” Mr Punia said when asked about the status of SCs in the state. He listed out growing instances of alleged atrocities on the community members, including rape and murder, in the past five years.
“Tamil Nadu is one among the top five states that witnessed more numbers of the atrocities against dalits. We had detailed discussion with the government. We are hoping that the situation will improve,” Punia told reporters here after chairing a review meeting with state government officials at the secretariat.Terming the recent murder of a Dalit engineer Gokulraj in Namakkal a caste-related violence, he said it cannot be brushed aside as a murder and demanded action under stringent legal provisions.
“It is a serious case. Stringent action must be taken. It cannot be brushed aside as a murder,” he said, adding that action under legal provisions like section 302 of the IPC (murder) or others under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities Act) alone would not suffice but others like Goondas Act or state-specific strong laws should also be invoked against the culprits. “It is caste-related violence which could spread.
The state government should stop it,” he said, hoping that the police could come up with some intelligence gathering mechanism to prevent recurrence of such incidents. He also noted that DGP has assured that prime accused would be nabbed soon. Punia has asked the state government to increase the quantum of reservation in proportion to their population. He said that Dalits account for 20.01 per cent of the state’s population whereas the reservation remains only at 18 per cent.
“The government should take into account 33 per cent of the SCs are living in very poor condition,” he noted. Taking exception to diversion of the sub plan funds to other works, he said that the government claims that they were allocated 18 per cent of the total budgetary allocation to the SC sub plan but only two per cent of the funds are used for the schemes exclusively meant for dalits.
“Other funds are used for the general schemes including road laying and health,” he said.
