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Thursday, April 1, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Alleged rape of dalit girl figures in U’khand Assembly

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/alleged-rape-of-dalit-girl-figures-in-ukhand-assembly/594125/

Alleged rape of dalit girl figures in U'khand Assembly

Agencies Posted online: Monday , Mar 22, 2010 at 1912 hrs
Dehra Dun : The alleged rape of a 9-year-old Dalit girl in Haridwar
figured in the Uttarakhand Assembly today with the Bahujan Samaj Party
staging a sit-in in the well accusing the state government of trying
to shield the accused.
As the House re-assembled after lunch, BSP members, led by its leader
Mohammed Shehzad, raised the issue and demanded a compensation of Rs
five lakh for the family of the girl who was allegedy raped on March
18.

Shehzad alleged the government was trying to shield the accused who,
he said, was an influential person.

Chanting slogans, the BSP members trooped into the well and staged a
sit-in as Speaker Harbans Kapoor asked them to resume their seats.

Amid the din, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prakash Pant said an
inquiry had been ordered into the alleged rape.

He said a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh would be given to the family of
the victim.

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[ZESTCaste] Quota most effective for affirmative action: PC

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Quota-most-effective-for-affirmative-action--PC/598329/

Quota most effective for affirmative action: PC
Political Bureau
Posted online: Apr 01, 2010 at 2216 hrs

New DelhiHome minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday told a conference of
state minority commissions that "reservation is the most effective
instrument that we have today" on affirmative action.

Chidambaram's Cabinet colleague and minority affairs minister Salman
Khurshid went a step further, saying the Congress was committed to
giving backward Muslims a share in the reservation list for backward
classes as it was a promise the party had made in its election
manifesto.

The statements by the two ministers come at a time when Muslim leaders
are demanding implementation of the Ranganath Misra Commission report
which had suggested 15% reservation for minorities in government
employment and education.

Last week, the Supreme Court allowed Andhra Pradesh to offer 4%
reservation in education and jobs to the backward among Muslims till a
Constitution Bench decides whether the state law is 'religion
specific' or a piece of social welfare legislation.

Addressing the conference, Chidambaram said: "Reservation is perhaps
the most effective instrument of affirmative action that we have been
able to forge. If there is a better instrument, we should certainly
debate that instrument. " He said the reports of the Justice Sachar
committee and Ranganath Misra Commission and the study by Satish
Deshpande (on Dalit Muslims and Dalit Christians commissioned by the
National Commission for Minorities) had highlighted the 'dark aspects'
of society, polity and economy and each one in its own way had pointed
the usefulness and limits of reservation.

He said the debate for reservation must, however, take into account
aspects like reservation for socially, educationally and economically
backward classes which are sanctified in the Constitution, the
desirability and need for compartmental reservation and the ceiling on
reservation placed by the Supreme Court.

He also said that a new law to deal with communal violence would
become a reality this year. He said there is an "urgent need to dispel
any misgiving on the part of the minority community and assure them
that the Centre is committed to preserve, protect and promote secular
values and provide equality of opportunity to all religious
minorities."

While Khurshid spoke about the Congress's poll commitment to include
backward Muslims in the OBC list, it could prove to be a double-edged
sword for the Congress. The Muslim leadership has already shot down
the idea, giving backward Muslims a share in the OBC quota could anger
the backward classes who enjoy reservation benefits.

According to Khurshid, it was time to 'go beyond reservation' and
think about affirmative action. He said backward Muslims could benefit
from affirmative action as it has benefited Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes.

He said the government also favoured a 'fresh look' at the Supreme
Court restriction on the government for notifying any community as
national minority—an indication that it wants inclusion of more
communities in such a list.

His ministry, Khurshid said, wanted to declare a district as minority
concentrated district even if it has 15% of such population. At
present, any district should have 25% minority population to make it
eligible for being declared a minority concentrated district.

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[ZESTCaste] Mayawati crackdown on NREGS bungling eyewash: Congress

http://sify.com/news/mayawati-crackdown-on-nregs-bungling-eyewash-congress-news-national-kd5tObfhbgi.html

IANS
Mayawati crackdown on NREGS bungling eyewash: Congress

2010-03-31 19:50:00

The Congress Wednesday termed the suspension of 22 officials by Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for alleged bungling of funds meant
for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) as an
'eyewash'.

The chief minister's move Tuesday night came after Congress general
secretary Rahul Gandhi alleged there was bungling of NREGS funds.

Congress spokesman Subodh Srivastava said the suspensions were an
'eyewash' in view of the suspected huge volume of pilferage across the
state.

'Each of the suspended officials were junior functionaries, and no
action has been taken against any senior official without whose
connivance or complicity the bungling could not have been
accomplished,' pointed out Srivastava.

Rahul Gandhi had sought to pointedly draw the state government's
attention to irregularities in Sultanpur, which covers his own Amethi
parliamentary constituency. However, the state government found
largescale bungling in four other districts as well - Gonda,
Balrampur, Chitrakoot and Mahoba.

While a sum of Rs.1 crore was found to have been used out of NREGS
funds in Gonda to purchase toys and calendars, a similar amount was
devoted towards purchase of sub-standard tents and first-aid boxes in
Balrampur. Likewise, as many as 700 digital cameras were purchased for
about Rs.60 lakh in Chitrakoot and 247 steel cupboards were bought in
Mahoba.

It was suspected that many of these purchases were made only on paper,
as not more than 25 percent of the cameras and cupboards could be
traced on physical verification, according to a departmental official.

Interestingly, the Uttar Pradesh government got into action only after
the union rural development ministry asked for details of measures
initiated by the state against reported irregularities in the
implementation of NREGS here. The union ministry had sought personal
appearance of the state Rural Development Principal Secretary Sri
Krishna.

Rahul Gandhi said at a district level meeting on NREGS in Sultanpur on
March 26 that the irregularities should be probed by a central agency
in case the state failed to take appropriate steps.

State Rural Development Minister Daddu Prasad, however refused to give
any credit to Rahul Gandhi for it. 'We initiated action into the
matter because our chief minister told us to proceed; and even earlier
we have got FIRs registered in 29 districts against as many as 60 gram
pradhans (village heads) and 30 panchayat (village council) officers,'
he said.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘Maya only talks of Dalit welfare’

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/In-brief/598538/

Express News Service

'Maya only talks of Dalit welfare'
Former BJP national president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday hit out at
Chief Minister Mayawati for "only talking about welfare of Dalits but
taking no concrete steps about it". Speaking to members of Pasi
community in Barabanki, Singh said, "The helicopters should be used to
check welfare schemes and reach out to more people in areas where
connectivity is poor. But the chief minister uses it to monitor her
own rallies all over the state."

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[ZESTCaste] Sonia unimpressed with UP job scam crackdown

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/90752/India/Sonia+unimpressed+with+UP+job+scam+crackdown.html

Sonia unimpressed with UP job scam crackdown
Mail Today Bureau
Lucknow, April 1, 2010

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has finally cracked the whip on
those involved in employment scheme irregularities, but Sonia Gandhi
is not impressed.

The Congress president on Wednesday expressed concern over large-scale
corruption in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
in the state and hoped it would work better in 2010-11.

Sonia, who attended a meeting of the district vigilance and monitoring
committee in her Rae Bareli constituency, was also critical of the UP
government's laxity in implementing centrally-sponsored schemes.

Taking note of allegations made in the meeting that the authorities
had rejected at least 16,000 applications for jobs under the NREGS,
Sonia asked the district magistrate to inquire into the complaints.

She was also unhappy that only 45 disabled persons had got jobs under
the scheme in Rae Bareli in the last financial year. "The number of
jobseekers whose applications were rejected is too high," she said.

Sonia also took exception to the fact that only 22 per cent women had
got jobs under the NREGS in 2009-10 whereas the law stipulated that 35
per cent beneficiaries should be women.

UP Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh said Sonia had demanded
details on the progress made in implementing poverty alleviation
schemes for 12,000 below poverty line families at an earlier meeting
with officials.

"She was unhappy when the officials expressed their inability to
submit the final report and sought more time. She said they were not
following the instructions for smooth progress of central schemes,"
Singh said.

Sonia asked the officials to ensure there were complaint books in
every village panchayat so that workers could write their problems.

On Tuesday, the Mayawati government had registered FIRs against 78
government employees and suspended 72 of them for their involvement in
financial irregularities in the implementation of the NREGS. The move
is being perceived as an attempt to checkmate Congress scion Rahul
Gandhi's plans to launch an agitation over corruption in the scheme's
implementation in the state.

But Sonia was least impressed with the decision and asked the
officials why the scheme was not being implemented properly to
eradicate poverty and unemployment among unskilled labourers in her
constituency.

Earlier, she met a delegation of Indian Telephone Industry employees.
She also went to meet the family members of freedom fighter Gaya
Prasad Shukla, who was close to former prime minister Indira Gandhi.