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Friday, Nov 05, 2004

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Central Government `ignoring' Dalits

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 4. The All-India Confederation of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe Organisation today criticised the attitude of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government and warned the party over ignoring the interests of Dalits.

It said the Congress came back to power since the people had voted against the policies of privatisation and disinvestment pursued by the previous National Democratic Alliance Government. "It seems that the Congress has taken for granted our support but today onwards, we will review our support and point out the wrong policies in the interests of Dalits," said the national chairman, Udit Raj.

He said that when the UPA Government was being formed, reservation in private sector for the Dalits, enactment of the Reservation Act and filling up of backlog vacancies were included in the Common Minimum Programme. However, now the Manmohan Singh Government was "dilly-dallying" on the issue of reservation leaving it to "the mercy of the industrialist." He said a rally would be taken out here on December 12 and a countrywide agitation would be lunched to press for the demands.

The organisation said that at present 11 to 12 per cent of the 5,500 IAS belonged to the Scheduled Caste as against the 15 per cent quota and Scheduled Tribe were only 3 per cent as against 7.5 per cent. Mr. Raj claimed that in the last 10 years, an average of 50-60 officers were empanelled for Joint Secretary and the total number of SC officers was 18 and ST 7.

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