SC/ST people cannot be forcibly evicted
‘SC/ST people cannot be forcibly evicted’
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Staff Correspondent
MANGALORE: No one can forcibly evict people from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from their lands under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, said Manjunath K Annigeri, Superintendent of Police, Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement, Mangalore Region, here on Sunday.
He was responding to a query by Krishnappa of Ekkar at a monthly meeting convened by the district police to address the problems being faced by these communities. Mr. Krishnappa alleged that some officials of the MSEZ Ltd were trying to forcibly evict people from these villages. Citing an incident, Mr. Krishnappa said that when he went to Urwa Police Station to lodge a complaint against an official of MSEZ Ltd, he was made to wait for five hours.
He said that he had gone to the police station at 1.15 p.m. and the police there registered his case at 6 p.m. Replying to this, Mr. Annigeri said he would enquire about the cause of the delay before passing any comments.
L. Shekar from Belthangady taluk objected to the use of “Harijan” in ration cards.
Ambedkar statue desecrated
Ambedkar statue desecrated
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Staff Correspondent
BIDAR: A statue of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was desecrated at Kheni Ranjol village of Bidar taluk on Staurday night.
Police said the miscreants had broken the spectacles of the statue and made the platform dirty at the Ambedkar colony of the village. The incident was noticed on Sunday morning by residents of the colony.
Superintendent of Police A. Subramanyeswara Rao told the residents that police would take action and appealed to them to maintain peace in the village.
Later, the residents submitted a memorandum to tasildhar Sharanappa asking for installation of a new Ambedkar statue at their new colony.
Some leaders of Dalit associations staged a protest on Bidar-Gulbarga highway at Hallikhed village and blocked the movement of vehicles for sometime.
Former Minister and MLA Bandeppa Kashempur visited the village. A police personnel has been deployed at the village as a precautionary measure.
Protest
Gulbarga Special Correspondent reports: Angry protestors, led by the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (Sagar), protested against the desecration of the statue. They stages a rasta roko for more than an hour on the Railway Station to supermarket main road near Deputy Commissioner’s office.
Dalit school lacks basic facilities for its 163 students
Dalit school lacks basic facilities for its 163 students
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Sudipto Mondal
The computers are not working
The school does not have a proper sports field
MANGALORE/MUNDAJE VILLAGE: The Nidigal Reserve Forest in Beltahngady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district is less than a kilometre away from the 32-acre campus of the Navodaya Model Residential Boys School here.
The 163 Dalit students, who come here from all over the State, do not even have a wall to protect them from the surrounding wilderness.
Started in 1992, the school was placed under the Social Welfare Department instead of the State’s Education Department, to provide special education to Dalit children. Today, the school is in a sorry state.
Over 20 of the 28 students in the tenth grade enthusiastically put their hands up when they are asked how many of them want to pursue a science education. Yet, the school does not have a science laboratory or a science teacher. Incidentally, there are four rooms designated as laboratories. One room is used as a kitchen, one as a storeroom and the other two harbour spiders. U.R. Swami (16), a former student who is now studying at a Pre-University college in Mysore, said that he was finding it hard to cope with lab work in his college. Swami, who was here to collect his original marks card said, “I sometimes feel that I should have studied elsewhere.”
Staff shortage
The school has an acute staff shortage. Kannada teacher Umakanth Gowda said that they had to teach classes 6 to 10. “We are B. Ed educated teachers and we are only trained to teach students in classes 8, 9 and 10. There is a special set of skills required to teach younger children and one must have passed the D. Ed for that. For the younger students there are no qualified teachers,” he said. Social Science teacher Aravind Chokkadi described the school as a bus stop. “Most of the teachers here are government job aspirants. They wait till their dream job comes calling and then the children are deserted,” he said.
“All teachers here are hired on contract basis.” The school got nine computers in August last year. Until April 2, 2008, not one was in working condition. Even now the internet connection has not been set up. The school does not even have a proper sports field and children play wherever they can find space. Cricket seems to be the favourite sport with the kids here. They use a stick with a rag wrapped around one end as a bat.
Sports teacher Laxman Tulsu said that he had sent several requisitions but to no avail. As of now the school has a volleyball and a punctured football.
When the issue was brought to the notice of the Taluk Social Welfare officer B.S Rajashekar, he said that the process of correction is already in progress. “Everything will be put right soon,” he said.
Five Colleges Refund Fees to SC/ST Students
Five colleges refund fees to SC/ST students
Sudipto Mondal
St. Aloysius claims to be a minority institution
Secretary seeks action taken report from PU board
MANGALORE: Two investigating agencies of the Government have come out with different reports on the violations of PU board norms alleged to have been committed by five colleges in the city.
The investigations were conducted simultaneously by the Department of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE) and a 13-member committee, constituted by the Deputy Commissioner, following certain civil rights organisations raised allegations that five PU colleges in the city had violated norms.
The DCRE found that the five colleges were guilty of charging donation and collecting extra fees from students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The committee, however, found that only four colleges were guilty on this count.
St. Agnes College at Bendoor, Expert College on Kalakunj road, Sharada College and Canara College at Kodialbail and St. Aloysius college on Light House Hill Road were the ones found guilty by the DCRE. The 13-member committee, however, found that the Canara College had not collected extra fees from SC/ST students. It concurred with the DCRE’s findings about the rest.
The five colleges are reported to have confessed their guilt and refunded the fees collected from the SC/ST students.
The report of exonerating Canara College was filed by Mangalore tahsildar Raju Moghaveera, who was in the 13-member committee. Mr. Moghaveera has said: “I have submitted my report based on the documents and records made available to me by the college.” He did not comment on the possible foul play by Canara College.
Sameer Shukla, another member of the committee, has termed the St. Aloysius PU College as a minority institution. Mr. Shukla, also the assistant commissioner of the district, said: “I have made my conclusions based on the information furnished to me. But I cannot say that my findings are 100 per cent accurate.”
St. Aloysius College pleaded before the DCRE that it was a minority institution and therefore exempt from the rules that governed other private colleges.
Although the St. Aloysius college refused to refund the fees, initially, the DCRE pointed out that the minority status was only for the degree college and not the PU college, after which it refunded the fee, according to Superintendent of Police and in-charge of DCRE, Manjunath K. Annigeri.
Superintendent of Police, in-charge of the DCRE, Manjunath K. Annigeri, told The Hindu that the college had refunded Rs. 5.65 lakh to 80 SC/ST students. Principal of St. Aloysius PU College John D’Silva said that his institution had been unfairly pulled up. He said that institutions such as his should be exempt from the norms.
Taking cognisance of the malpractices, the Secretary to Government, Department of Primary and Secondary Education, has sought an explanation and a report on the action taken from the Commissioner of Department of PU Education in this regard.
Do not evict Dalit cultivators
‘Do not evict Dalit cultivators’
SHIMOGA: Members of the Shimoga district unit of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Ambedkar faction) staged a dharna at the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Thursday in protest against the eviction of the Dalit people engaged in the bagair hukum cultivation at Tamadihall village in Haranahalli hobli of Shimoga taluk.
In a memorandum submitted to the district administration, samithi’s district general secretary V. Bhagwan alleged that Revenue officials were trying to evict the farmers engaged in bagair hukum cultivation.
“False” cases were being registered against the farmers for holding protests against the attempts to evict them from the land on which they had been cultivating for long. He urged the Government to regularise the cultivation, and put an end to their harassment.
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