A phone-in facility will be set up to enable persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe to air their grievances at the monthly SC/ST meeting with police, Superintendent of Police A.S. Rao announced here on Sunday.
Remarking on the turnout, Mr. Rao said that postponement of meetings may be one of the reasons for the poor response observed during the last few meetings. However, starting the phone-in facility would help the people communicate their problems as travelling to Mangalore is difficult for many people, he said. He recalled that the phone-in programme was in place a few years ago. The number would be provided to activists the week before the next meeting, Mr. Rao said.
Member of Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (Ambedkarwada) S.P. Anand said that no action had been taken on the unnatural death report (UDR) of one Sheena who was found near Uppinangady bus stand last May. He said that there was a suspicion that he had been murdered and he had not died of natural causes.
An officer concerned with the case said that the man had consumed alcohol and died. He said that forensic report is yet to be received. He also said that the cause of death could not be ascertained until the forensic report was obtained. Mr. Rao directed him and other officials to find out why the report was delayed by many months.
Vishwanath from Bantwal town requested Mr. Rao to look into a government scheme meant to give autorickshaws to minorities and people from backward classes. He said that under the scheme, a beneficiary got Rs. 75,000 aid from the government and the rest of the money required for an autorickshaw (around Rs. 47,000) was to be taken by loan from a private finance institution rather than a nationalised bank. Mr. Rao said that he would look into the matter.
