A meeting of the Scheduled Castes people here on Sunday urged the Mangalore City Corporation to provide amenities, including bath rooms for their families and to increase the subsidy for constructing houses from Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh.
The meeting was held under the auspices of the Mangalore city unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxists) to urge the civic body to utilise the funds under “22.75 per cent scheme” of the Government specially earmarked for weaker sections, properly.
It urged the corporation to construct at least 300 houses for Scheduled Caste people in its jurisdiction in a year and provide residential sites for all their families under the scheme.
The participants urged the civic body to increase the financial assistance being given for repairing the houses from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000.
The other demands included, doubling of the scholarship amount for students and grant it in the beginning of every academic year and simplifying the procedure for issuing caste certificates and issuing them on time.
Allegation
Addressing the meeting, Krishnappa Konchady, a member of the district committee of the party, alleged that the city corporation was anti-Scheduled Castes. He claimed that the civic body had reduced the annual grant under the scheme in its 2010-11 budget from Rs. 3.6 crore to Rs. 3.16 crore. “It clearly indicates the anti-Scheduled Castes policy of the civic body,” he said.
Admar Sripathi Acharya, in his inaugural address, urged the civic body to use the funds under the scheme for supplying drinking water and constructing toilets to Scheduled Caste people.
The corporation should not give scope for misuse of funds under the scheme, he said.
Mr. Acharya said that the living condition of the Scheduled Caste people remained pathetic even after 63 years of Independence. They were still being deprived of education and allotment of lands. It was not proper to assume that if some persons from Scheduled Castes occupied top positions in Legislature, executive and judiciary, the condition of others belonging to Scheduled Castes would improve. Those at the helm of affairs should have an attitude to helping them for their integrated welfare, he said.
Vasantha Achary, a member of the district committee of the party, and Sunil Kumar Bajal, secretary of the city unit of the party, spoke.
