SC/ST people be given their due rights and place in society

New Delhi, July 28 (UNI) The Rajya Sabha today forcefully spoke for the need of reservation for the tea workers in Asom at par with the Scheduled Castes.

Members, belonging to all parties, said the workers employed in tea gardens in Asom were discriminated against in the State. While they are treated as SC/ST elsewhere, they were not given this treatment in Asom.

Speaking during the discussion on a private member's bill, they said the tea workers are a ''poor and exploited lot.'' Supporting the Bill, Mr Motilal Sarkar of CPI(M) said that this are anomalies in the list of SC/ST and demanded that it should be uniform across the country. This anomaly has to be removed by the government as soon as possible.

He spoke about the status of OBCs also and said that in some states, they are treated as upper castes and in some, as SCs/STs.

Noting eight states in the country have no rservation for OBCs, he said SCs/STs and OBCs are facing social toture and atrocities and these types of menaces be reduced to zero.

Congress' Dharampal Sabharwal said that about 150 years ago, the British had taken people from many states to Asom to serve as plantation workers in tea gardens.

''In their state of origin, they were treated as SCs/STs and were getting benefits accrued to them, but in Asom, they lost their identity and benefits they were entitled to,'' he said.

Mr Sabharwal demanded that Article 341 and 342 of thwe Constitution should be suitably amended to protect the interests of these very people and to provide them a proper place in the society.

Supporting the Bill, he demanded that these people should be restored all their social and economical rights.

Prof Ram Deo Bhandary of RJD said that injustice is being meted out to these people. Even after 59 years as an independent nation, the SC population is facing a lot of injustice, he noted.

''Government should seriously consider their problem and some place carved out for them so that these people can prosper and join the mainstream,'' he said.

Congress' Prabha Thakur of Congress said people from SC/ST communities should be brought back to the mainstream and given all possible protection.

''Mahatma Gandhi called them the men of God (Harijan) and they must be respected. These people were uprooted by Britishers from their original places and brought to Asom to work in tea gardens,'' she said.

Supporting the Bill, Dr Thakur said these people should be given equal opportunities to prosper in life and education to them and their children should be given free of cost.

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