National Commission for Scheduled Castes doing without imp post

New Delhi, Jan 13 (UNI) The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) is feeling severe constraints in dealing with cases of atrocities on Scheduled Castes as the post of Deputy Inspector General of Police in the Commission has been lying vacant for over two years.

In fact it is learnt that IPS officers in general are very reluctant to join the commission.

An official in the NCSC told UNI that presentation to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had been made several times in this regard but so far no result had come out.

Whenever information was received in the commission about any incident of atrocity against a person belonging to Scheduled Castes, the commission is required to immediately get in touch with the law enforcing and administrative machinery of the state and the district to ascertain the details of incident and action taken by district administration.

If not satisfied, the commission itself can take up investigation into such cases.

The official said in view of these duties entrusted to the Commission, the vacancy of the post was creating hurdle in the proper discharge of its duty.

However, sources in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said great difficulty was being felt to fill the post as no IPS officer was willing to take up the job, which was obviously not very glamourous.

They said the ministry had sevreal times made panels of names but officers had been refusing to take up the job.

One more added reason of the officers' reluctance to join the Commission was the lack of proper infrastructure.

One official said it would be advisable for the ministry to relax the norms and conditions for the post.

Besides, the Commission was also suffering from many handicaps.

Commissions Vice Chairman Prof N M Kmamble said there was no proper mechanism for knowing cases of atrocities on Scheduled Castes most of which went unreported.

The Commission takes action when it comes to know these cases through media as the police stations do not register FIR in most cases, and it was not possible for the poor people to travel to the state commissions office to register their complaints, he said.

He suggested that it would be better if the Commission units were constituted at the district level too to increase its reach to the people.

Prof Kamble said it was the duty of the state commission also to provide adequate facilities to the Scheduled Castes people to lodge their complaints to the Commission.

The first Commission under the Constitution (65th Amendment) Act was constituted on March 12, 1992 replacing the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the Commission was set up under the Ministry of Welfare's Resolution of 1987.

The functions, duties and power of the Commission are to investigate and monitor all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the Scheduled Castes under the Constitution or under any other law and to evaluate the working of such safeguards.

It inquires into specific complaints with respect to the deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Scheduled Castes.

The Commission is also to participate and give advise on the planning process of socio-economic development of the Scheduled Castes and to evaluate the progress of their development.

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