National Commission for SCs wants more from Mayawati govt

Lucknow, Sep 20 (UNI) National Commission for Scheduled Castes has taken strong exception over certain issues in Uttar Pradesh due to which the rights of the SCs were not being protected properly.

Commission chairman Buta Singh said here today although the Mayawati government officials had assured Commission members here during their three-day visit to UP to look into the entire issue and do the needful, still there was much required to end the miseries of people belonging to SC category.

Mr Singh said the effort of the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government to dilute the central SC Act and including 16 backwards castes in the list of SC through ''unconstitutional means'' had been widely protested by the commission.

''Atrocities on the SCs are still continuing in UP and very little has been done by the government,'' he lamented.

He said the commission had started probe into all the central sponsored government development projects related to the SCs and a report on the matter will be submitted to the President and Parliament before the winter session of the House.

Narrating in detail the lapses, he said lakhs of fake SC certificates were issued in 2006 for people of the 16 backward castes, who were illegally given SC status.

''We have asked the government to scrap these certificates which are being misused and interfering with the rights of the genuine SC people,'' he added.

On another issue of diluting the central SC Act, the commission chairman said UP had amended the Act by a simple government order (GO) in which only cases of murder and rape could be registered under the SC Act.

Similarly, the government had changed the investigating officer from a DSP level to inspector level in the SC case, he added.

Meanwhile, state cabinet secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said here the government was making all efforts to implement the central SC Act, while making it clear that all objections raised by the SC Commission were being seriously considered.

UNI