Saturday, June 19, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Hooda sets up one-man panel to probe Mirchpur dalits' killing

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Hooda-sets-up-one-man-panel-to-probe-Mirchpur-dalits-killing/articleshow/6065869.cms

Hooda sets up one-man panel to probe Mirchpur dalits' killing
TNN, Jun 19, 2010, 04.15am IST

CHANDIGARH: After Supreme Court's rap on Mirchpur, Haryana government
on Friday set up a one-man commission to probe caste-related violence
when a Dalit man and his physically-challenged daughter were burnt
alive after a group from Jat community torched their houses.

After the April 21 incident, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi
visited Haryana. Congress president Sonia Gandhi came down hard on
chief minister B S Hooda. The message was clear: atrocities were
unacceptable.

The commission will inquire into the circumstances leading to death of
Dalit Tara Chand and his daughter Suman. It will also find out who was
responsible for loss of life, property and violence and assess the
damage caused to Balmikis.

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[ZESTCaste] Video news report: Dalit hamlet torched in Haryana

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/news/Dalit-hamlet-torched-in-Haryana/videoshow/6025132.cms

Video news report: Dalit hamlet torched in Haryana
08 Jun 2010, 10:01pm IST| Duration: 00:13

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[ZESTCaste] Nepal: Dalit family banished from village for inter-caste marriage

 

http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/news-archive/19-general/6911-dalit-family-banished-from-village-for-inter-caste-marriage.html

Dalit family banished from village for inter-caste marriage

Friday, 18 June 2010 13:51

A Dalit family in Prasawani VDC in Saptari has been expelled from the
village for inter-caste marriage, state-owned news agency RSS reported
Friday.

The six-member family of Gugali Rajak Safi has been displaced from the
village after beatings and threats from the so called upper caste
people after he married Basanti Kumari Chaudhary as his younger wife.

Safi has come to district headquarters along with his elder wife,
younger wife and two children after the family of Chaudhary thrashed
and threatened him with life. He said he came to Rajbiraj after he was
threatened to quit the village.

Safi had married to Basanti with the consent of his elder wife
Gitadevi and legal recognition of the district court four months ago.
They had been working in India and had returned home just a few days
ago.

Basanti said she is three-months pregnant and the villagers thrashed
her even when she told them about her condition. She urged the media
persons to help create a situation for rehabilitation and security for
them in the village. Currently, they are taking refuge at a Maoist
office in Rajbiraj. nepalnews.com

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[ZESTCaste] UP govt officials cheat Dalit farmers

 

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/102181/India/up-govt-officials-cheat-dalit-farmers.html

UP govt officials cheat Dalit farmers
Piyush Srivastava
Lucknow, June 19, 2010

Officials of the Uttar Pradesh government cheated at least 12,500
marginal Scheduled Caste farmers in Kanpur- Rural district on the
pretext of supporting them under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

The scam could touch Rs 50 crore, the Central Employment Guarantee
Council of the NREGA said.

Last year, the Centre had introduced some amendments in the Act for
those SC/ST farmers who have a land holding of less than 1 hectare.

They were eligible to get high quality seeds and other assistance to
cultivate their land.

An inquiry conducted by the state government has found most of the
farmers who were shown as beneficiaries were landless labourers.

On the other hand, the few farmers who got seeds and invested their
own money hoping to earn returns discovered the seeds were
substandard.

The officials also purchased the seeds at a much higher price than
rates fixed by the government's horticulture department.

Misuse or parking of fund was also detected in the construction of
model ponds in each gram sabha of the Kanpur- Rural district under the
NREGA. Vinod Shankar Chaubey, a retired IAS officer whom the
government assigned to probe irregularities in the area, has raised
these glaring embezzlements.

His report is backed by physical verification, affidavits of the
farmers and reports of the district, block and village officials.

"The farmers were not lying when they said they didn't get seeds.
Shankar Dayal of Mohana village has given an affidavit that he got Rs
1,400 as daily wage.

But he didn't get potato seeds as mentioned in official records.

Brijesh Kumar of Mohana took land on rent from another person.

He received 1 kg of potato seed from village secretary Arvind Kumar.
He also invested Rs 8,000 on it. But it went waste because the seed
was of poor quality. Brijendra Kumar got less than 10 grams of tomato
seeds," Chaubey reported.

"We have received complaints that some officials took a bribe of Rs
300 from the farmers to provide them benefits under the scheme," the
report submitted this week stated.

"According to the government rate, coriander seeds cost Rs 80 per kg.
But it was purchased by the officers for Rs 584 per kg from
Uttaranchal Seeds and Terai Development Corporation Limited in
Uttarakhand.

Tomato seeds cost Rs 27,500 per kg but it was purchased at Rs 30,600
per kg," Chaubey said.

"A pond in Mohana was shown on paper as being repaired in 2007-08 at
the cost of Rs 1.94 lakh. It was repaired again in 2008- 09 for Rs
2.71 lakh, and in 2009-10 for Rs 1.66 lakh," he said.

Besides, Rs 6,720 was fixed for building eight cement benches around
each model pond. However, the authorities released Rs 6,000 for each
iron bench even though the market price of one iron bench is not more
than Rs 3,500," the report noted.

Rural development minister Daddu Prasad said action would be taken
against the corrupt officers. "We want proper and honest
implementation of the NREGA," he added.

Sanjay Dixit, a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council,
said the officials had parked more than Rs 50 crore by one or the
other means in Kanpur-Rural under the NREGA. "About Rs 4 crore out of
Rs 4.71 crore, which was approved for seeds, was misused. They also
siphoned off about Rs 10 crore in the purchase of substandard seeds.

A similar amount was misappropriated in repairing the same ponds again
and again. I think the scam involves about Rs 50 crore. I have urged
the state government to suspend all the corrupt officials. Kanpur-
Rural was the pilot district for the project. Now, its implementation
in 35 districts has been withheld," he said.

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[ZESTCaste] Dalit set afire over phone

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/Dalit-set-afire-over-phone/articleshow/6065923.cms

Dalit set afire over phone

Deepender Deswal, TNN, Jun 19, 2010, 05.08am IST

JHAJJAR: A dalit youth was set ablaze by a group of five people, said
to be from the upper caste, after a fight over a missing cell phone in
Gwalison village of Jhajjar district on Wednesday night, outside the
venue of a folk song.

The victim, Sandeep Kumar, has been admitted to PGIMS at Rohtak with
serious burns. A case of attempt to murder was registered at Beri
police station.

The victim told police that Debi Singh came up to him and accused him
of stealing his cell phone. When he denied this, Singh got into an
argument. Soon, he was joined by four other youths who began abusing
him.

However, when he stuck to his stand, one of the group, emptied a
petrol can on him and set him afire. SSP, Jhajjar, Saurabh Singh said
there appeared to be no caste angle, but a DSP has been asked to probe
the matter.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati scraps PPP in rural healthcare

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Mayawati-scraps-PPP-in-rural-healthcare/635762/

Mayawati scraps PPP in rural healthcare
Deepa Jainani
Posted online: 2010-06-19 01:44:57+05:30

LucknowThe Uttar Pradesh government has called off plans to involve
major hospital chains, including Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Heathcare,
Max Healthcare and Rockland, to revive its district-level health
centres.

The state government announced the termination on Thursday. The
decision was conveyed in a press release by the state information
department. Chief minister Mayawati said it has been decided that
government hospitals would not be handed over to the private sector.
Instead, she has directed department heads to ensure better
functioning and strengthening of these hospitals.

The government's initiative to hand over the district-level public
healthcare service infrastructure to the private sector was envisioned
under the public-private partnership model.

While no reason was given for the rollback of the decision — which had
promised to provide a cutting-edge, integrated healthcare delivery
system with international standard benchmarking and patient-centric
approach right up to the village level — it is being seen as a
regressive step.

It is felt that besides making the government appear apologetic, it
will also impact all other PPP projects lined up by the state
government. The state had planned to transfer operations of four
district hospitals, eight community centres, 23 primary health centres
and 210 sub-centres in the four districts of Allahabad, Ferozabad,
Basti and Kanpur Nagar to the private sector. The prospect of managing
healthcare in the hinterland appealed so much to the private sector
that all the big names in private healthcare turned up at the three
pre-bid meetings and submitted requests for proposals.

Experts tracking PPP initiatives feel that with this single decision,
the government has undone all the good work it has done on the PPP
front in various sectors in the last three years. "Investors had shown
interest in many of the state's projects after years of persuasive
efforts to wean off the anti-industry tag and by offering loads of
incentives. They will again feel let down by this order and will
dither in putting money into the state," said the member of a leading
industry chamber.

An official of the state medical and healthcare department said: "This
would not only question the credibility of the state government on its
own policies, but would also take the wind out of all efforts which
have been put into other projects so far."

This is, however, not the first time the state government has
developed cold feet after announcing a radical policy. Earlier, the
government had rolled back its path-breaking agricultural policy –
which threw open the farm sector to the private sector and introduced
contract farming in 2007 – retracted the highly commendable and
transparent e-procurement policy in 2010 and ordered the closure of
Reliance Fresh stores barely 24 hours after they were opened in 2007.
In fact, the decision on Reliance Fresh stores resulted in Mukesh
Ambani shelving plans to invest about Rs 10,000 crore in the state.


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