Villupuram Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar on Tuesday met Chief Minister N. Rangasamy at the Legislative Assembly and submitted a memorandum, demanding that the government immediately constitute a State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, in the Union Territory.
In the memorandum, Mr. Ravikumar said that as many as 12 States including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu had constituted a separate commission for SCs and STs.
“When Puducherry has a State Commission for Women and the Puducherry Commission for Protection of Child Rights, there is no reason for the Union Territory to not have a separate Commission for SC/STs. This is very unfortunate. There should be no further delay and the government should immediately constitute the State Commission for SC/STs,” he said.
According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), as many as 20 cases under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, registered between 2018 and 2021 in the UT, are pending for prosecution. This only shows that cases of atrocities against Dalits are not properly registered, and the accused involved in the cases are not convicted, Mr. Ravikumar said.
The MP also urged the Puducherry government to ensure that the meetings of the Vigilance and Monitoring Committee are held four times a year at the district level. When the issue was raised in Parliament, it was revealed that these meeting were held only once in 2017 and 2018. “This is highly shocking and unfortunate,” he said, in the memorandum.
