Mavalli Shankar, Chief Convener of State unit of Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Ambedkar Vada), said on Wednesday that the Congress should withdraw from the coalition government in the State as it was doing nothing concrete for the welfare of the lower classes.
Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Shankar said that the coalition government was working for the benefit of just one community. The samiti had brought this matter to the notice of the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who had pleaded helplessness stating that it was a coalition government. “Why should the Congress not withdraw from the coalition then? How can 38 MLAs of the Janata Dal(S) dominate over 78 MLAs of the Congress?” he asked.
Mr. Shankar said that the grants allocated for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes last year had remained under-utilised. No one had been appointed to head the Scheduled Tribes Commission in the State. The government should appoint a person with legal knowledge or a legal expert to head the commission instead of an MLA or a politician as it had to deal with a lot of legal issues, he said.
There was no proper investigation of cases of atrocities against the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. As a result, there was only 3 % conviction, while the rest of cases were dropped by the police after filing B report. This defeated the very purpose of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, he said.
Steps should be taken to distribute land reserved for the depressed classes, popularly called “DC manna bhoomi”, to the deserving beneficiaries of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. More grants should be given to the Ambedkar Development Corporation to promote self-employment, Mr. Shankar said.
Chandu L., B.K. Vasanth, Sundar Gujjarbettu, Lokesh Padubidri, office-bearers of the samiti, were present.