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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Mirchpur violence: Supreme Court pulls up Haryana

http://www.sify.com/finance/mirchpur-violence-supreme-court-pulls-up-haryana-news-default-ld2tEkiiidd.html

Mirchpur violence: Supreme Court pulls up Haryana

New Delhi, March 28 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday pulled up the
Haryana government for its failure to maintain law and order and asked
why it should not reimburse the railways for the losses caused by the
Jats' blockade in January against the arrest of members of the
community who attacked Dalits in Mirchpur village last April.

The court slammed the government for not executing its orders passed
in the wake of the protests.

An apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly
said: 'What is the respect of an order passed (by court) in public
interest if it is not honoured.'

When Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval said that the failure of
the state government in maintaining law and order would amount to the
breakdown of the law and order machinery, the court said it was
'avoiding' using that expression.

Raval said that there should be a will to govern and rule, prompting
the court to add that things were slowly moving towards a state of
anarchy.

The court said that it was for the civil society to take cognizance of
the situation.

The court's observation came during the hearing on a petition on the
attack on the Dalit locality of Mirchpur village by the members of the
dominant Jat community. A 70-year-old man and his 18-year-old
physically challenged daughter were killed in the incident.

The members of the Jat community embarked on 11-day road and rail
blockade after 98 people belonging to the community were booked for
arson and killing in Mirchpur village in Hisar district, some 300 km
from Chandigarh.

The call for the blockade was given by the mahapanchayat of 12 khaps
(caste councils) in January.

Expressing displeasure over the manner in which the Haryana government
had handled the situation, the court asked the state why it should not
reimburse the losses suffered by the railways during the agitation.

'Why should not the state reimburse the railways for the loss suffered
by it in the course of the agitation? They (Jats) can't destroy public
property or stop railways from operating,' the court said.

Hauling up the state government on its handling of the Jat agitation,
the court said: 'So far air traffic has not been affected but a day
may come when such a disruption of air traffic may take place.'

The judges also wanted the state government to address the question as
to what is the extent of a 'peaceful agitation'.

The court said that there was no limit to the power of the state when
a group of agitators in the name of peaceful agitation illegally block
rail and road traffic.

The judges said this after Haryana's Advocate General H.S. Hooda
submitting that there was a limit to the exercise of power by the
state in dealing with a peaceful agitation.

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[ZESTCaste] ''Dalits, tribals in UP, Orissa not getting benefit of MNREGA''

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/dalits-tribals-in-up-orissa-not-getting-benefit-of-mnrega/628044.html

''Dalits, tribals in UP, Orissa not getting benefit of MNREGA''
PTI | 05:03 PM,Mar 29,2011

New Delhi, Mar 29 (PTI) Over 67 per cent of poor Dalit and tribal
households in Orissa and Uttar Pradesh did not get a single day of
employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act last year, an NGO today claimed. The Centre for Environment and
Food Security also alleged widespread irregularities and corruption in
implementation of 10 food security and poverty alleviation schemes in
the most backward areas of the two states. The NGO's charges come
close on the heels of the Supreme Court asking the Centre to
expeditiously decide on a CBI probe into allegations of
misappropriation of funds meant for MNREGA in Orissa, as claimed by
the same organisation. The apex court had on March 14 said reports
prepared by the NGO, CAG as well as the National Institute of Rural
Development NIRD show that there is massive misappropriation of funds
to the tune of 88 per cent in some districts of Orissa. The CEFS'
present findings are based on a performance audit conducted by its
activists through sample survey in 130 villages spread over 12
districts of Orissa and UP (Bundelkhand). Releasing the report here on
the findings, CEFS Director Parashuram Rai said, "Only 7.3 per cent of
the sample households had received above 50 days of MNREGA
employment.Out of 2000 very poor households surveyed in Orissa, only
five of them received 100 days of work in 2010". Rai rubbished as an
eyewash the claims made by the Orissa government and the Centre about
Gajapati district setting an example by bagging the award for best
practices at the MNREGA awards 2009-10. "If anybody visits this
district, projected as one of the best in Orissa, they will be shocked
to see the level of poverty, unemployment and malnutrition", said the
activist, who also claimed that this was the most exhaustive report
prepared on the plight of Dalits, Adivasis and their non-inclusion in
these schemes. Rai claimed that a similar situation prevailed in
Bundelkhand, with over 52 per cent of the needy households not getting
a single day's employment.

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[ZESTCaste] Need to tackle rise in SC/ST atrocity cases: Wasnik

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/soon-exclusive-courts-for-disposal-of-scst-atrocity-cases/625548.html

Need to tackle rise in SC/ST atrocity cases: Wasnik
Updated on Saturday, March 26, 2011, 15:57

New Delhi: Government on Saturday admitted that there was a rise in
the number of atrocity cases against people of schedule caste and
scheduled tribes in the country and said there was an urgent need to
tackle the issue.

"It is a fact that despite having the SC/ST (prevention of atrocity)
Act, there has been an increase in the number of atrocity cases
against people of these communities in recent times. There is a need
to tackle this issue," Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul
Wasnik said here.

According to National Crime Records Bureau statistics, a total of
80,489 cases of atrocity against scheduled tribes were recorded from
1995 to 2009.

He was speaking at the first national consultation of tribal people's
movements and organisations on 'implementation of the SC/ST Act and
Tribal Sub-plan (TSP)'.

He lamented that the conviction rate in such cases was abysmally low
at 27 per cent and that the pendency of cases in courts nationwide was
as much as 81 per cent.

On the issue of allocation of funds for the TSP and Special Complement
Plan (SCP), he said it has been found that this was not working as per
the plan, adding that, there have been complaints that funds for SC/ST
projects and people were not reaching the rights hands.

"We are improving the monitoring mechanism and several shortcomings
have been done away with. Earlier, one could not figure out the exact
allocation by the finance ministry, but, we requested Pranab Mukherjee
and he has changed pattern in the recent Union Budget," Wasnik said.

Regarding government's plans for education of the SC/ST communities,
he said till now they were only provided with a post-matric
scholarship scheme, which nearly 47 lakh students took benefit of
annually.

"Now, for the first time, government will provide pre-matric
scholarship schemes, targeting 40 lakh students," the minister said.

Vasanti, a leading SC/ST activist, spoke about the plight of tribal
men and women working as domestic helps in New Delhi and other parts
of the country and said she was optimistic that the National Advisory
Council, headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, was looking at
preparing a draft Domestic Workers Social Security Bill.

Citing a recent case, she said a senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS)
officer, presently posted in Ahmedabad, has been accused of sexual
harassment by his house help who is a tribal girl.

"We urge the Social Justice Minister to write to the Ministry of
External Affairs to take action against this officer," she said.

PTI

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[ZESTCaste] Soon, exclusive courts for disposal of SC/ST atrocity cases

http://ibnlive.in.com/generalnewsfeed/news/soon-exclusive-courts-for-disposal-of-scst-atrocity-cases/625548.html

Soon, exclusive courts for disposal of SC/ST atrocity cases
PTI | 11:03 AM,Mar 27,2011

Anil Nair New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) Taking serious note of the trial
mechanism and poor conviction rate in cases of atrocities against
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Centre has asked all the
states to set up exclusive special courts to handle such matters. The
move comes after NGOs and social groups repeatedly told the government
that there was a rise in atrocity cases against SC/ST in the past few
years and that the trial procedure and conviction rate in courts
across the country were poor. "The government has circulated a concept
note to all states regarding setting up of exclusive special courts
for SC/ST cases," Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik
told PTI. He said that certain states have already announced their
decision to set up these special courts and discussions were underway
at various levels to make this a reality. According to latest
statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), between 1995
to 2009 as many as 80,489 cases of atrocity against people of
Scheduled Tribes were registered, of which 1,911 were murder cases and
7,537 rape cases. Though the NCRB has not given similar data for
atrocity cases against Scheduled Castes, a report tabled in Parliament
in the Budget Session showed that in 2008 itself as many as 30,913
offences were registered. Wasnik admitted that the conviction rates in
such cases was "abysmally" low at 27 per cent as compared to that of
other IPC offences. He also lamented that the pendency of these cases
in courts nationwide was as much as 81 per cent. Retired senior IAS
officer P S Krishnan, who is credited for the formulation of the SC/ST
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, has been advocating on the urgent need
to set up the exclusive special courts. "Apart from the issue of
pendency of large number of cases, the issue here is that there is a
dearth of lawyers and judges to hear such matters," Krishnan said. He
said tribals face a lot of problems when they go to regular courts as
nobody understands their language and issues. Krishnan also said there
was a need for day-to-day trial of SC/ST cases once the special courts
were set up. As per the official figures, at the end of 2009, as many
as 15,909 cases of crimes against ST remained pending in courts.
States like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and
Orissa have the maximum number of instances of crimes against SC/ST
community, the figures indicated. "The need of the hour is to have
exclusive special courts, lawyers from the SC/ST community and aware
of their rights and issues and also investigators who can handle such
cases," the retired bureaucrat said.

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[ZESTCaste] Students to get e-scholarship now

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-27/patna/29194398_1_atm-card-lakh-students-class-xi-and-xii

Students to get e-scholarship now
TNN, Mar 27, 2011, 06.22am IST

PATNA: The Bihar government on Saturday introduced an innovative
scheme of providing scholarship to college students belonging to
Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), EBC and backward classes
through e Z-Pay card. Bihar is second state after Andhra Pradesh to
introduce this scheme.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar handed over the cards to some of the
beneficiaries at a function here. In the first phase, 2.50 lakh
students are being provided this ATM card for which the government has
made agreement with the SBI. The students were in a jubilant mood and
they experimented with their ATM cards at a specially set up ATM unit
at Samwad where the function was held.

The CM said through the scheme, the monthly scholarship will be
deposited in the account of each beneficiary and the students would be
able to draw the money from ATMs by using their cards. This will
rescue them from unnecessary harassment and save their time running
from one place to another.

"This is a post-matric scheme and later it will be extended to school
students too," Nitish announced. He said the stipend had been raised
three times and may be increased further in future. The aim of the
scholarship is that the students should continue with their higher
education and should not drop out due to financial restrain.

The CM, however, said he did not have good experience with the banks
who initially had not cooperated with opening of account for school
girls who were being paid money for purchasing uniform and bicycle. He
said he rejected the idea of giving stitched uniform and bicycle to
them as it could lead to scams. That was why he decided to give cash
to the students for the purpose.

He advised the students to utilize the money properly and continue
with their education, but he did not discourage them from indulging in
some fun and frolic though.

SC, ST, EBC and backward classes welfare department secretary Ravi
Parmar said 2.50 lakh beneficiaries had been provided with e Z-Pay
card in the first phase. In the second phase, Parmar said, students
from Class VII would be included in the scheme and then about a
million students belonging to the group would get this pre-paid card
which has a 10-year validity. The beneficiaries need not open bank
account.

He said presently the students were getting monthly stipend between Rs
300 and 700 depending on their class and stream; likewise students of
Class XI and XII were getting Rs 300 while students of technical
education get Rs 700 per month. This card could be used at any of
23,000 SBI ATMs, he added.

"We will also include the beneficiaries of Mukhya Mantri Chhatra Vriti
Yojna under this scheme. The students of SC, ST, EBC and backward
classes get Rs 10,000 on passing matric exam with first division. This
time the incentive will also be paid through cards," Parmar said.

Earlier, minister of SC, ST welfare Jitan Ram Manjhi and minister of
EBC and backward classes welfare Hari Prasad Sah thanked the CM for
introducing the scheme saying it will encourage the students from poor
and backward sections of society.

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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

[ZESTCaste] Mirchpur violence: Supreme Court pulls up Haryana

[ZESTCaste] ''Dalits, tribals in UP, Orissa not getting benefit of MNREGA''

[ZESTCaste] Need to tackle rise in SC/ST atrocity cases: Wasnik

[ZESTCaste] Soon, exclusive courts for disposal of SC/ST atrocity cases

[ZESTCaste] Students to get e-scholarship now

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