Dalit empowerment plan of Cong stuck
Maulshree-Seth Posted online: Monday , Dec 14, 2009 at 0236 hrs
Lucknow : The Youth Congress is finding it difficult to enroll new
members under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories —
the backbone of the ruling BSP — in Uttar Pradesh.
The reason: Many SC/ST applicants have failed to submit their caste
certificates with their enrollment applications, saying that it was
difficult to get the certificates issued from the government
officials. As a result, all such applications are yet to be approved.
Providing the SC/ST certificates with the application forms is
important for two reasons. First, the membership fee for SC/STs is
only Rs 5 as against Rs 15 for others. So any person unable to submit
the certificate has to pay Rs 15. But more importantly, the SC/ST
candidates without the required certificates will be enrolled under
the general category and this will debars them from getting the
benefit of reservation in important posts of the Youth Congress.
In an attempt to empower the Dalits, the Youth Congress has, for the
first time, provided reservation for SC/STs at all levels of the
organisation, beginning from panchayats to Lok Sabha constituencies.
The reason behind the outfit's insistence to attaching the SC/ST
certificate is that it wants to ensure that the organisational reform
actually benefits the SC/STs. But with just two days of the membership
drive left, the party has thousands of application forms filled by the
SC/ST members minus the caste certificates.
The caste certificates are issued by the local tehsil administration
but the Youth Congress has told the applicants that it would also
accept those certificates which have been issued by gram panchayat
secretary or any authorised government official. This, too, has not
helped the candidates. "We are trying our level best to help such
members, but they say panchayat secretaries and officials at the
tehsils are not issuing the certificates. We cannot accept these forms
under the SC/ST category. We estimate that if the problem persists,
then it would reduce our SC/ST membership by 50 per cent," said Arvind
Chaudhary, state returning officer of the Youth Congress.
If the candidates are unable to submit their caste certificates by
December 15, their applications will be accepted under the general
category. "We did not face such problem in other states," said
Chaudhary, who actively took part in organising Youth Congress polls
in Punjab and Gujarat.
Rajesh Rathore, returning officer for Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha segment
said that little could be done for those without the caste
certificates as almost the entire enrollment process has been
computerised. "Even if we accept these forms without caste
certificates, they will be rejected during scrutiny," Rathore added
Sources said that in Rae Bareli Lok Sabha segment, around 800 forms
submitted by SC/ST youths are without caste certificates. In Dariabad
Assembly segment of Faizabad Lok Sabha area it is 450 and in Kannauj
Lok Sabha segment the figure stands at 1,000. A district
administration official in Lucknow, meanwhile, said the procedure of
getting the caste certificate that entails submission of an
application with an affidavit at the tehsil office followed by
verification, generally takes a month.
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