Chandigarh: A delegation of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance today met with the Hon’ble Governor of Punjab Sh. V.P. Singh Badnore at the Punjab Raj Bhawan in Chandigarh. Led by Paramjit Singh Kainth, President of the Alliance along with Palwinder Kaur Haryau, President of the Women wing of the alliance, Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi, Secretary NSCA and Balwinder Singh Kumbrah met the Hon’ble Governor at his residence. Issue for the meeting was the rising tide of atrocities and injustices met upon the Scheduled Castes community in Punjab along with the lapse in the implementation of various schemes and policies aimed at benefitting the community.
Submitting the memorandum, Kainth said “It is taking place in 21st century when science guides the minds; entire society has accepted the principles of equality of all humans, human rights and justice to all without discrimination of any kind. But in our society, even educated people have irrational caste oriented minds. It is of utmost urgent importance that we highlight the various caste based bias against the Scheduled Castes community.”
Discussing various issues the main topics of the meeting were; Reservation in promotion, Post-Matric Scholarship, Dilution of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act 1989 and including it in the 9th schedule to prevent from further distorting, demand of calling a Special session of the Parliament, Oblivious implementation of the Stand up india scheme, Allotting 1/3rd Shamlatt Land to the Scheduled Castes community Making Chandigarh exclusive capital of Punjab, Implementation of the Sant Harchand Singh Longowal and Rajiv Gandhi pact and much more.
Addressing the media persons Kainth said “Punjab Government has been unable to procure the funds for the Post matric scholarship for the Scheduled Castes students, complete ignorance on the part of Punjab government over the 2018 notification of the scheme, the state government has jeopardized the future of lakhs of students belonging to the community. Scheme like the Stand up india has been inefficiently administered by the State, failing to punish banks which do not comply with the scheme. Initiatives meant for empowering and aiding the community are not potently supported by the Captain Amrinder Singh led Congress government in the State.”
He said “There are almost 6398 branches of various banks in the state out of which only 886 have joined the initiative to provide loans to the budding entrepreneurs of the community. Certain Acts related to Scheduled Castes should be put in the 9th schedule to end the politics over it. The SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities 1989 and acts related to providing Reservation to the Scheduled Castes in India should be included in the schedule so as to prevent them from being distorted or made use of, in political battlegrounds.”
Included in the demands was the allocation of 1/3rd shamlatt land to the scheduled castes community and also providing land for the construction of a Bhawan or dedicated exclusive infrastructure in Punjab for the Scheduled Castes community. NSCA also demanded certain exclusive benefits for the agriculture labourers suffering the State and aimed heavy criticism against the State government for ignoring the plight of the scheduled castes community in the State. Kainth also demanded for implementation of provisions under the Punjab accord for providing the State of Punjab with the exclusive territorial and administrative claim for Chandigarh.
Kainth reiterated that “The Union government should call a special session to discuss the issues of the Scheduled castes community and make concerned efforts to persuade State governments to implement the schemes and policies meant for the empowerment of the community. The Governor is a representative of the union in the State and today our meeting was to present issues through our concerned efforts to the central government so that immediate solutions can be reached.”