Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120561071200.htm

Tamil Nadu

Land Act for Dalits still on paper: court

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Thirty years have passed and the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Schemes Act conceived for the Dalits remains a paper proposition, the Madras High Court said on Wednesday.

The constitutional validity of the legislation was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1995 and a Full Bench of the High Court had settled the controversy over the modalities of the procedure involved in land acquisition for Harijan welfare schemes in 2006. It was a pity that these cases, filed in 1996, had virtually frustrated the welfare scheme conceived for the Dalits, Justice K.Chandru said dismissing a writ petition filed by M.Venkataraman, who challenged the acquisition of his land in Muthanendal village, Manamadurai taluk in Sivaganga district, under the provisions of the Act. The acquisition was for providing house sites to Adi Dravidars of that village.

The Judge said a number of anti-discrimination statutes and positive-benefit provisions existed in Indian laws for protection and the benefit of Dalits, tribals and other backward classes. But the implementation and enforcement of these laws was poor.

Mr.Justice Chandru said the Dalits faced social, linguistic and systematic barriers that became virtually impossible to overcome in the face of an often hostile system and an insensitive civil administration. He directed the Collector to expedite the implementation of the scheme in right earnest.