Rise in crime against Dalits expose real face of Badal Government : Channi

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief Mr Charanjit Singh Channi today expressed his sense of shock over alarming rise in crime against Dalits ever since Mr Parkash Singh Badal took over as the Chief Minister in 2007. He said the Deputy Chief Minister Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal had perhaps overlooked this “achievement” of his government while making presentation earlier this week to remove what he termed as misconceptions among the people.
Mr Channi cited data received by RTI activist Dr Jasdeepak Singh from the Punjab State Scheduled Castes Commission to hammer this issue and prove his criticism of the Badal government being anti-Dalit and weaker sections.He substantiated his charge saying the number of total complaints with the Commission increased from just 651 in 2007 to a staggering 12,834 and these complaints were in various categories including services. What was all the more serious was the increase in atrocities on Dalits under this government that keep on talking of “RAAJ NAHIN SEVA” to mislead the people. The complaints against atrocities on Dalits increased to 7709 in 2015 as compared to 473 in 2007, which is almost fifteen times. The cases of complaints registered with the commission about the service matters increased from 106 to 1311 in these eight years while the government was only able to resolve 768 out of these complaints, 543 are still pending. He questioned the Chief Minister as to why the Dalits continue to be targeted so blatantly. Out of these 12,834 complaints, the end of 2015 had decided only 5456. In case of atrocities, 3714 cases had been decided and still 3995 are pending in the process of the commission. In total 7378 complaints are pending till today.Channi asserted the disturbing rise in such complaints was proof enough that the Badal government was anti-dalit and running rough-shod over them who constitute 33 per cent of the population in Punjab, the highest as compared to other states in the country. He said these people would not now be misled by utter lies of this government whose real face now stand exposed.Channi also blamed the deputy Chief Minister S Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also the home minister of the state to explain the people of Punjab out of these 7709 cases of Dalit atrocities, which victim family was visited by the chief minister, deputy chief minister or any of your senior colleagues in the government. This is shame on the face of the Badal Government and they should also include these figures in the list achievements, which they project in the seven star hotels in corporate style of functioning. Still there are N Number of cases who are not reported even, these are those strata of the society who even do not approach any police or commission. There are many glaring examples where the victim’s family is pressurized to reach compromise by the goons of the Shiromani Akali Dal and even the Police also. This is the Gundaraaj of the Badal government in the state.