The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Centre, State urged to clear backlog of SC/ST vacancies

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Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Centre, State urged to clear backlog of SC/ST vacancies

Special Correspondent

Tamil Nadu Anti-untouchability Front’s plea

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Anti-untouchability Front, affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has urged the Central and State Governments to clear the backlog of vacancies, reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in Government Departments. The front, which met in Tiruchi recently, wanted the State Government to increase the quota reserved for SCs/ STs from the current 19 per cent to 20 per cent in view of the increase in population of the community.

The front regretted that many States, including Tamil Nadu, had failed to utilise the funds allotted by the Central Government for Dalit welfare schemes and had returned unutilised funds to the Centre. To protest the “indifferent attitude” of the States and to demand more allotment for socio-economic development of Dalits and tribal people in the next budget, the front has decided to organise a state-level meet in February in Chennai.

The meet regretted that there had been increasing incidents of violence against Dalits in the State and only 10 per cent of the accused were punished while the rest had gone scot-free. To punish those involved in the cases, the meet urged the Centre and the State to implement the Anti-Untouchability Act more vigorously.

The meet felt that at present the State Government’s Scavengers Welfare Board was functioning more as an advisory body. It urged the Government to give it powers and enrol more members to the board.

The front decided to observe April 14, the birth anniversary of Ambedkar, as anti-untouchability day every year.

A state-level conference had been planned in January in Chennai to demand ban on manual scavenging and to modernise scavenging work.

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