Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 06.09.15
Miscreants damage Ambedkar statue - The Hindu
Rape, SC/ST atrocities cases against MPDO - The Times Of India
SC/ST commission seeks FIR against scientist at DRDO wing - The Times Of India
Mirchpur communal violence probe nails police, magistrate - The Hindustan Times
SEBI on hiring mode;to appoint 46 official from SC, ST, OBC - The Hindu
Local people up in arms against housing project - The Hindu
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Dalit Muslims of India
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The Hindu
Miscreants damage Ambedkar statue
Special Correspondent
Dalit leaders and activists staged a dharna at Pidimgoyyi village in Rajahmundry rural mandal on Saturday after some miscreants damaged the statue of B.R. Ambedkar and threw it in the nearby bushes.
According to East Zone DSP Asma Farheen and in-charge RDO Radhakrishna, the incident took place in the wee hours and the police had received a complaint in the morning from TDP SC Cell State secretary Kasi Naveen Kumar and others. Mr. Naveen sought immediate arrest of accused and a probe into the incident.
According to preliminary probe by the police, there was a Sivalayam on 5.16 acres that was given to the Dalits by the government long ago. Recently members from two other communities tried to renovate the temple, which did not go well with a section of the Dalits, who said their consent was not taken.
Meanwhile, some Dalits installed an Ambedkar statue on the premises, which was damaged by miscreants and thrown into the bushes. The DSP pressed a CLUES team and a dog squad into service and booked a case.
The RDO assured that the government would install a new statue in place of the damaged one and settle the issue. However, Mr. Naveen said if the police failed to nab the accused within three days, he would intensify the agitation.
Dalit leaders agitate, Revenue, Police officials pacify them
The Times Of India
Rape, SC/ST atrocities cases against MPDO
TNN | Sep 4, 2015, 11.48 AM IST
VISAKHAPATNAM: The mandal parishad development officer (MPDO) of V Madugula in the district was arrested by the PM Palem station cops in the city on Thursday for allegedly cheating and sexually exploiting a tribal woman from Araku by promising to marry her.
Cases were registered against the MPDO, R Satyanarayana, under sections 376, 417, 420 of IPC as well as the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act for allegedly sexually exploiting, raping and cheating a tribal woman, Korra Lakshmi, from Araku area in the district.
While Satyanarayana was working as MPDO at Araku, he allegedly ensnared Korra Lakshmi, who was working as a sweeper on a contract basis at his office. Lakshmi, a widow and mother of two children, was repeatedly sexually exploited by the MPDO after promising to marry her. The woman, with the support of a few women's organizations, lodged a complaint against Satyanarayana at the Araku Valley police station on June 11 this year after Satyanarayana deserted her.
After the complaint, Satyanarayana enlisted the help of a local political leader, village sarpanch and two others to thrash out a compromise at a meeting at Simhachalam. He agreed to pay her maintenance of Rs 3,000 per month and also signed on a stamp paper stating the same. However, after a few days he put her up at a rented house at Rajiv Gruha Kalpa in Marikavalasa on the outskirts of Vizag. However, after three months he stopped paying the rent.
When she began insisting on payment of last month's rent and that he take her to a doctor as she was suffering from pain in her eyes, Satyanarayana took her to the Government Hospital for Mental Care at Peda Waltair and admitted her on August 26.
The woman got suspicious when the mental hospital doctors started treating her for mental ailments the next day and pleaded with them to let her go as she was not mentally deranged. She recounted her story to the hospital staff, who summoned Satyanarayana, pulled him up and asked him to leave the naive woman at her native place in Araku.
Sources said that Satyanarayna then took her to a hotel in the city and after ordering her a meal, fled while she was eating. With the help of the hotel staff, the woman met Mahila Chetana, a voluntary organization working for women, on August 31. The women's organization took the woman to the PM Palem police station on Thursday after which the police filed a case and arrested the MPDO.
The Times Of India
SC/ST commission seeks FIR against scientist at DRDO wing
Yogesh Kumar,TNN | Sep 3, 2015, 04.58 AM IST
DEHRADUN: The SC/ST commission has recommended registration of an FIR against a senior scientist of the Defence Electronic Application Laboratory (DEAL), Dehradun. The complainant, a technical officer, had alleged that his assessing officer, the scientist, was biased against him and had reduced his annual grades that are crucial for promotion. The DEAL, a wing of the DRDO, is likely to take action.
The commission's deputy chairman, Rajendra Barakoti, passed the order, a copy of which is with TOI, against the scientist on the petition of Jagdish Kumar, a technical officer, on August 31.
The SC/ST panel has directed the DEAL director to take cognizance of the evidence before registering an FIR against the scientist under relevant sections of the SC/ST Act. In 2014, the complainant had approached the commission seeking action against R K Aggarwal, group H-level scientist, posted at DEAL, Dehradun.
The complainant had alleged that Aggarwal, his reviewing officer, had deducted his annual marks that were crucial for promotion due to caste bias. "Assessing officers have always given me good marks on the basis of my real work and contribution. But the reviewing officer, Aggarwal, who was biased against me, deliberately used to deduct my marks. It scuttled my promotion for more than four years."
Aggarwal, however, claimed that the matter had been blown out of proportion. "In my entire career, I never had any kind of bias against anyone. The complaint is baseless," he said.
DEAL director Dr RS Pundir told TOI, "I have received a copy of the order and action would be taken as per the law. The commission has recommended registration of an FIR and we will do the needful after going through the order." The DEAL director has also been asked to submit an action taken-report to the commission.
DEAL is a DRDO wing involved in the indigenous development of sensitive equipment such as satellite communication and software radios, and image processing and analysis.
The Hindustan Times
Mirchpur communal violence probe nails police, magistrate
Rajesh Moudgil, Hindustan Times, Chandigarh
|
Updated: Sep 06, 2015 12:05 IST
The one-man judicial commission of inquiry into the Mirchpur communal clash of five years ago has held the police and the duty magistrate responsible for the escalation of the tension.
On Friday, the 220-page report of Justice (retd) Iqbal Singh Commission was tabled in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha during its ongoing monsoon session. On April 21, 2010, at Mirchpur village of Hisar district, Dalit Tara Chand (70) and his handicapped daughter, Suman (16) were burnt alive in their house while several other people were injured in the arson and rioting between dominant Jats and oppressed Dalits. Even Parliament took note of the atrocities on the Dalits by the upper-caste group.
The inquiry report based on spot visits and the statements of many people, including the villagers, victims, and witnesses, has held that though there was tension at Mirchpur a day before the clash as well because of an altercation between members of the two communities, the local police failed to alert the seniors; and inaction on the part of the Narnaud police escalated the tension.
Evidence shows that on the morning of the riot, cops at the Narnaud police station had ignored an alert about simmering tension at the village and done nothing, later, to control the situation, reads the report, adding that even the duty magistrate failed to restore peace. "The assertion of the police that they had inadequate force is not correct. They were mute spectators. The duty magistrate did not order fire, which allowed to mob to run riot," says the report, adding that even if women and children were in the mob, the duty magistrate "had no reason to abdicate his duty".
The report suggests that the requisitioned police personnel, some of whom were armed with self-loading rifles, ran away from the spot, which allowed the mob to burn the houses. "Had the Narnaud police deployed adequate force and taken prior action, this unfortunate incident could have been prevented," the commission reported.
The findings suggest, however, that the state government did all it could to provide the victims with relief and restore peace.
Report says
The assertion of the police that they had inadequate force is not correct; they were mute spectators
The duty magistrate did not order fire, which allowed to mob to run riot
The requisitioned police personnel, some of whom were armed with self-loading rifles, ran away from the spot, which allowed the mob to burn the houses of the Dalits.
The Hindu
SEBI on hiring mode;to appoint 46 official from SC, ST, OBC
PTI
Capital market regulator SEBI has embarked on a special recruitment drive for hiring 46 officers from SC, ST and OBC community of the society, as part of its plan to beef up its headcount for faster and more effective execution of its work.
Currently, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has workforce of over 700 people.
The watchdog plans to recruit legal experts, researchers, engineers and other officials for general administration from Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Class (OBC) categories.
SEBI has invited applications for 32 posts in general administration department, nine in legal stream, two each for research and official language team and one for engineering department.
The candidates can apply for the positions between August 22 and September 7.
The regulator would select the officers through a written examination followed by interview.
Earlier, an independent consultant had suggested SEBI to increase its workforce to about 1,000 employees in order to meet future manpower requirements to take full ownership of regulatory oversight of all investment schemes besides staff requirement in regional offices as well as local offices.
The Hindu
Local people up in arms against housing project
STAFF REPORTER
A major reason cited by the Corporation for the delay in the project housing project for SC/ST families here is opposition from the local people.
The two-acre plot on which the Dalit families set up tents last week is situated inside the Chandrasekharan Nair residents association in Mannammoola.
According to Krishna Pillai, president of the residents' association, the residents here are not too keen on having a 'colony in the centre of their residential area'.
"When this land was taken over by the Corporation in 1998, we expected some developmental project to happen here. But over the years, it has been a bane for us. We are concerned that bringing a group of people from outside and making them stay here will spoil the peaceful atmosphere here. Rather than putting them together in a colony, the government should try to give them separate houses in different areas," he says.
At the same time, he says that the residents are not against a housing project for 'low income groups'.
The land is currently leased out to a private contractor engaged in a road development project near here. A part of the land is being used now to park JCBs, trucks and for housing some of the migrant workers involved in the project.
The residents evidently are also 'not comfortable' at having migrant workers staying in their locality. Some of them volunteered with loose unsubstantiated comments on criminality among migrant population when The Hindu talked to them on Saturday.
News monitored by AMRESH & AJEET
.Arun Khote
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.