Scheduled Castes panel to submit report to Govt

New Delhi, Jan 9: Before its term expires next month, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes would submit a special report to the Centre which will be an appraisal of the government's response to its recommendations and of its own working.

The report will be a detailed account of the Commission's advices heeded and not heeded by the government and the constraints and handicaps it faced in its working and executing its orders, sources in the Commission told UNI.

''There is a growing feeling in the panel that it is being given a step-motherly treatment. It is working without a chairman for the last six months and three important posts--those of DIG, Deputy Secretary and a Director-- are also lying vacant. Overall, there is sixty per cent shortage of staff, and its budget is inadequate for the kind of work it wants to do,'' they said.

In its coming report, the Commission may demand the power to impose fine on those failing to appear before it when called in cases of discrimination against scheduled castes.

Besides, there will be a demand for increasing the annual budget and staff.

Those in the Commission feel that despite being a statutory body, it is not being given the space it deserves, the sources said.

The term of the present commission was going to expire on February 20. Its chairman Suraj Bhan had died in August, and since then the post has been lying vacant.

The statutory Commission came into being, first as National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in 1990 through the 65th Amendment to the Constitution.

It was constituted on persistent demand of the Members of Parliament that the Office of the Commissioner for SCs&STs alone was not enough to monitor the implementation of Constitutional safeguards.

The first Commission, headed by Ram Dhan, was constituted on March 12 1992, replacing the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

It was bifurcated into two separate commissions--one for Scheduled Castes and the other Scheduled Tribes through 89th amendment to the Constitution in 2004.

The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Commission have been conferred the status of Union Cabinet Minister and Union Minister of State and the Members of the Commission enjoy the rank of Secretary to the Union Government.

UNI