Arjun Bhadre, State organising convener of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsh Samiti, demanded that the government provide plots and houses to 20 nomadic families, who had been living in temporary sheds on open government land in Kamalapur for the last 50 years.
Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, the Dalit leader said that the families did not have any documents to prove their citizenship and nationalities thanks to the “profound apathy” of the officials.
“The people belonging to Dasa (Holeya) communities don’t have ration cards, voter IDs, Aadhaar, or any other documents to say that they are the citizen of India. These families are living in petty jobs, such as ragpicking and selling hair-pins. Their children are not being admitted to schools as they don’t have any documents,” Mr. Bhadre said.
According to him, the families have been living for the last 50 years on the same government land and requests to the district administration, to provide them documents and build houses for them, went in vain.
Mr. Bhadre said that his organisation had now taken up the issue with the district administration.
“We have planned a dharna outside the district administrative complex on Thursday as a token of protest. If our demands are not considered, we will plan more intensified struggles,” he said.
Other Dalit leaders Mallikarjun Khanna, Shivakumar Koralli, Suryakanth Azadpur and Mahesh Kokile, and the representatives of the nomadic families were present.
