India Aboriginal Humanscape: Dalits Media watch News Updates 20.02.11

Moga (Punjab): Eight persons, including four policemen, were injured when members of a Dalit community demanding reservation in government jobs clashed with the police who used batons and tear-gas to disperse them at Mehna here.

The police said on Saturday that over 100 Dalit community members blocked rail traffic between Moga and Ludhiana on Friday night and indulged in stone-throwing, leaving four policemen injured. The police used batons and tear-gas to disperse the unruly crowd.

Senior Superintendent of Police Snehdeep Sharma said railway authorities had to stop the Ferozepur-Ludhiana-bound train at Moga and the Ludhiana-Ferozepur train at Ajitwal.

The track was cleared only after 9 p.m. – PTI

The Tribune

Dalits-Police Clash

20 Dalit activists sent to judicial custody

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110220/punjab.htm#3

Kulwinder Sandhu, Tribune News Service

Moga, February 19 The local court of Rakesh Gupta today sent 20 activists of a section of the Dalit community to judicial custody for 14 days. They were arrested by the police, late last night.

The Dalit activists clashed with the police at Mehna railway station in Moga district on Friday night when the cops tried to resume the rail traffic, which was blocked by them in protest against the state government's decision to cancel their reservation in jobs as per the directions of the high court. As many as six cops and a few protesters were also injured in the clash.

In a late night exercise, the Mehna police registered a criminal case under Sections 307, 332, 353, 186, 148 and 149 of the IPC against 40 activists by name and an equal number of unidentified persons, said Pushpinder Singh, SHO, of the police station.

As many as 20 activists were produced in the court of Rakesh Gupta, this afternoon. The court has sent them to judicial custody till March 3 while one of them was still admitted to the hospital. The six injured cops were discharged from the hospital by doctors after giving them first aid.

The SHO said the police had also taken into custody six more activists today who would be produced before the duty magistrate by tomorrow morning after completing legal formalities.

The police was forced to open fire in the air and use tear gas to disperse the agitators when they started pelting stones on the cops. The cops managed to disperse the agitators, after which, the rail traffic was restored late in the night.

They were demanding restoration of reservation in jobs, waiving electricity bills for their community and reservation in fixing of seniority/promotion in the Education Department.

Indian Express

Dalits' murder trial delayed as Delhi official stays away

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/dalits-murder-trial-delayed-as-delhi-official-stays-away/752368/

Posted: Sun Feb 20 2011, 01:35 hrs New Delhi:

The trial in the alleged murder of two Dalits was again delayed as Delhi Principal Secretary (Home), failed to appear before a Rohini court on Saturday — irking Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau.

The court had summoned the chief secretaries of Delhi and Haryana in person, or through an officer not less than the rank of Principal Secretary (Home), to apprise it on various issues related to the case, in which a Dalit and his daughter were burnt alive and many houses gutted in violence that engulfed Mirchpur in April 2010.

When Haryana Principal Secretary (Home) Sameer Mathur appeared before the court on Saturday morning, with no official from Delhi, the court immediately summoned Additional Secretary (Delhi) S B Shashank, who appeared later in the day. Shashank informed the court that the Principal Secretary (Home) was on leave, following which the court asked him to appear on February 21.

The trial as well as the 100 accused in the case were later shifted to Delhi, following an apex court order to ensure justice for the victims. Victims, through their counsel M S Rastogi, also moved two applications before the court on Saturday — seeking protection and accommodation from the Delhi government, and the appointment of a public prosectutor of their own choice. Mathur said: "All issues decided by the court are agreeable to us."

The court had earlier asked the officials to answer three questions: Which State government will ensure protection for witnesses/victims; which government will secure the production of victims/witnesses and make arrangements for their stay in Delhi; and who among the six prosecutors will lead the trial. While Haryana agreed to accord protection, Delhi said it would provide accommodation to the victims.

The Hindu

Dalits testify to atrocities against them

http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/20/stories/2011022052110400.htm

Special Correspondent

TIRUCHI: Dalit men and women who had been subject to discrimination, harassment and violence testified before a People's Tribunal for Legal Redress organised by Evidence, a Madurai-based non-governmental organisation, here on Saturday.

About 50 cases, a majority of them registered and documented by Evidence during 2010 across the State, were presented before the panel. Victims and their relatives narrated their sufferings, including difficulties faced by them in registering police cases.

Prominent among the cases taken up was that of Poomayil, a Dalit woman panchayat president of Kallankudi in Sivagangai district. Poomayil said she was verbally and physically abused by caste Hindus after she questioned an irregularity committed by a Makkal Nala Paniyalar. The group assaulted, dragged by her saree and attacked with footwear, she said.

A panel comprising V.Karuppan, member, Panchami Land Retrieval Committee, Saraswathi, women's rights activist, Samuel Raj, general secretary, Untouchability Eradication Front, M.Gunasekaran, journalist, V.Sethuramalingam, faculty member, Bharathidasan University and B.S.Vanarajan, heard the day long presentations.

DNA

Why Marathas want reservation?

http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_why-marathas-want-reservation_1510331

Published: Saturday, Feb 19, 2011, 21:50 IST

By Pandurang Mhaske | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

While Dalits take to the streets to demand the pulling down of an anti-Ambedkar page on Facebook, a far more serious threat to the community is on the rise as the dominant political caste, the Marathas, has reiterated its demand for reservation.

Though the Marathas (including the economically weaker Kunbi sub-caste) comprise only about 30% of Maharashtra's population, their representation in the state assembly averages about 43%. The community also has a stranglehold on local political institutions like the panchayats, panchayat samitis and zilla parishads, which is further consolidated by its control over credit and sugar cooperatives and educational institutions.

Why then is the Maratha Arakshan Sangharsha Samiti (Mass), an umbrella organisation of 15 Maratha bodies, demanding reservation for Marathas? A closer look reveals that though the community is seeking quotas in education and employment, its main aim is to gain political reservation in due course.

Maratha leaders have sought 25% reservation in schools, colleges and jobs in the first phase, and later intend to demand political reservation and promotions in government service on caste basis.

Though a section of the community, mainly the one which depends on agriculture for sustenance, has been economically backward for many years, and its condition is deteriorating, socially and in terms of political clout, the caste is has been ascendant. Before the implementation of the panchayati raj system, and even afterwards, Marathas have been the only rulers in villages. It might be true that power is in the hands of a few community elite, but it is also true that all the power centres in the state are controlled by the Marathas.

Not only gram panchayats, but the entire co-operative movement in the state, from cooperative sugar factories to weaving mills, is dominated by the Marathas.

The Maratha demand took root after the lower castes were granted reservation in politics. Some say the community could not digest that a person from a lower caste can wield the power which has been its sole prerogative for generations.

Given the size of the Maratha vote bank, no political party can afford to ignore its demand, but due to its overbearing nature, none can publicly support it either. The parties, however, did try to lend implicit support in the hope that it would bring them extra votes, but the move backfired by creating a real threat of polarisation of non-Maratha communities. The political parties are now thus a proxy in the issue, preferring instead to work behind the facade of organisations like the Maratha Mahasangh and others.

The Dalit leaders, though wary, are not openly objecting to the demand. Their key contention is that the reservation should be given from a separate quota without affecting the reservation offered to the other backward classes (OBCs).

Senior Dalit leader and Dalit litterateur Arjun Dangale agrees that a section of the Maratha community is poor and doesn't have land to cultivate. "The demand may be sound, but the existing reservation of other castes should not be curtailed," he says.

"Since the chairmanships of local self-government arms, from the gram panchayat to zilla parishad, are reserved for each caste on rotation basis, the Maratha community will be able to wrest power for longer periods if it is denoted an OBC. Political reservation may be their hidden agenda," Dangale says.

Another Dalit activist, professor Avinash Mahatekar, said that if the Marathas want reservation, it should be on the basis of economic backwardness. "The reservation allotted to OBCs is based on the Census of 1930, and is only 27%. However, the Mandal Commission's finding is that 52% of the state's population belongs to OBCs. If we consider the commission's findings, the reservation for OBCs is not sufficient," Mahatekar said. "But we still support the reservation for Marathas as many among them are backward," he added.

On their part, Maratha leaders refute they are ultimately angling for political reservation. "The Marathas have been economically backward for many years and there are just a handful of families, about 150 to 200, who have all the power," said Purushottam Khedekar, chief of Maratha Seva Sangh.

"The situation has changed in the last few years and the Marathas are not the rulers anymore. In fact, the community is not even interested in that role and wants to educate itself and get better jobs instead," Khedekar said. "We don't want reservation in politics. But our demand for reservation in education and government jobs stands," he reiterated.

However, Vinayak Mete, MLC of the Nationalist Congress Party and a prominent Maratha leader, said, "The Marathas are backward in education which resulted in them having no face in the administration. There is opposition from various sections, but we are not for curtailing anyone else's reservation. We want to be treated as a separate community in the reservation category," said Mete.

Ultimately, Maratha leaders concede they have let their community down. "Though most of the educational institutions are controlled by Marathas, the leaders haven't bothered about the community," Mete says, and adds, "They never tried to think for the upliftment of the community, and that is why we are pushing for reservation."

Though there is little to refute that this admission lies at the heart of the problem, what makes the plot more sinister is that these very leaders are now exploiting the backwardness of their community to tighten their grip on power.

The Hindu

Tough road ahead to secure release of Malkangiri District Collector

http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/20/stories/2011022065761400.htm

Aman Sethi

MALKANGIRI: The schoolchildren of Malkangiri are holding rallies to seek his release, but the fate of District Collector R.V. Krishna, who was abducted by cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on January 16, is likely to rest on the Orissa government's response to the set of demands put forward by his abductors.

On February 10, the Maoists released five policemen captured in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district even as the State government refused to respond to 11 demands circulated in the local and national media. At the time, senior Maoist leader Prabhat told this correspondent that the men had been released as the policemen came from poor families. "It would have been very different if we had captured an IPS officer," he said.

In the case of Mr. Krishna, a pamphlet released by the Andhra-Orissa Special Zonal Committee spokesman, Prasad, listed five demands: the withdrawal of Central paramilitary forces from Orissa and an end to Operation Green Hunt; the release of all political prisoners in Orissa; an end to police atrocities against the State's tribal population; suspension of contracts signed with multinational companies, particularly in Niyamgiri; and compensation for the families of two Maoists, Taringe Ganglu and Sirka Ranola, who died in Koraput Jail (allegedly due to negligent jailors).

Later, sources close to the Maoists said that the guerrillas have also demanded the distribution of land-titles in three places in Orissa, including Narayanpatnam where Adivasis are struggling to retain ownership over about 2,500 acres of land, and compensation for villages submerged in the Balimela reservoir. Newspaper reports state that the Maoists also want the Polavaram Dam project to be stopped.

It is believed that the first step shall involve a negotiation over the release of three individuals — Sriramalu Srinavasalu of the Maoists' Andhra-Orissa Special Zonal Committee, Ganti Prasadam, convener of the Martyrs Friends and Relatives Committee, and K. Padma, wife of Maoist leader Ramakrishna.

There are currently seven battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force and five battalions of the Border Security Force deployed across Orissa, accounting for about 12,000 paramilitary troopers. There are also about 700 prisoners currently facing trial in Maoist-related cases, indicating that the State government faces tough decisions .

'Different this time'

"This is very different from Chhattisgarh where the Maoists decided to release the policemen and we acted as facilitators," said activist Swami Agnivesh, who participated in the February 10 hostage release in Narayanpur. "This time the Maoists will not let him go just like that."

Stating that while Mr. Krishna had reached out to the poorest and most vulnerable inhabitants in his capacity as Collector, V. Suresh, national secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties, noted that the pleas of the family members of the five lower-ranking policemen kidnapped in January went unheard for 18 days.

"In Chhattisgarh, the Maoists kidnapped three Dalits and two tribals, and the Chhattisgarh government did not help at all," Mr. Suresh said. "Here the government has responded on the very next day…bureaucrats only respond when their own officials are involved."

--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")

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Monday, February 21, 2011

Dalits Media watch News Updates 20.02.11

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