The Hindu : CM calls meet with DSS leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

CM calls meet with DSS leaders

By Our Staff Correspondent

GULBARGA June 17. The Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna, has convened a meeting with the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Mavalli Shankar) on Wednesday in Bangalore to discuss the demand of the DSS for categorisation of different castes in the scheduled castes and fixing reservation in proportionate to their population.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Monday, the Convenor of the DSS, N. Shivanna, the organising convenors, Mavalli Shankar and Shivayogi Kollur, said that the DSS would chalk out the next course of action if the meeting with the Chief Minister did not yield results.

Mr. Shivanna said that the DSS leaders had held three rounds of talks with the Chief Minister on the issue, and although the Government promised to act on their demand, it had not done so.

Reiterating their demand for categorisation in the scheduled caste list and for conducting a survey to know the population of the castes for fixing the reservation based on that, Mr. Shivanna and Mr. Shankar said that this would be the final answer to complaints of one single caste enjoying the reservation benefits given to all castes in the SC list. The decision of the DSS to support the demand for categorisation was to avoid the bitterness and clashes among different castes on the issue as it happened in Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Shivanna said that the categorisation of castes in the SC list existed in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana, besides Andhra Pradesh.

The DSS leaders came down on the Government for its "failure" to curb atrocities on dalits. They said that the high-powered committee, headed by the Chief Minister, to review cases of atrocities against SC/STs had not met even once or visited the places where attacks on dalits took place.

Mr. Shivanna alleged that dalit ministers, including Mallikarjun Kharge, had failed to protect the interests of this section and, therefore, had no right to continue in office.

He said that the Social Welfare Minister, Kagodu Thimmappa, who had failed to ensure the full utilisation of funds provided under the Special Component Plan (SCP) for welfare of SC/STs should be dropped from the Cabinet immediately. The DSS leaders said that the Government had also not kept its promise of filling backlog vacancies in its departments, boards, and corporations.

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