Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 21: All India Confederation of SC, ST, OBC Organisations held a peaceful protest at Ambedkar Chowk Jammu, today to show resentment against non-implementation of the SC/ST Atrocities Act.
They alleged that recently cases of caste based atrocities are rising in J&K. Recent instances from Udhampur and Akhnoor were purely of caste discrimination but the police did not register them under SC/ST Atrocities Act.
RK Kalsotra, State president Confederation, said that post abrogation of Article 370, SC/ST Atrocities Act was made applicable to J&K but even after that cases are not registered under the act because of lack of accountability shown by the police department. He added that the Supreme Court of India explicitly mentioned that all cases of public humiliation should be registered under the act but the instances of Akhnoor and Udhampur have seen not only public humiliation but also physical and mental harassment putting people in hospitals. There are other instances from Ramnagar, Samba and Kishtwar.
Members of various cadre also joined the protest march from Ambedkar Chowk till DGP office but were stopped by the Police parties led by SHO Trikuta Nagar Insp Deepak Pathania, SHO Gandhi Nagar Insp Bharat Sharma, SDPO South, PK Mengi under the supervision of SP South Deepak Digra.
Later, a magistrate, Mohd Saleem, was present as a nominee of the DGP who accepted the memorandum, addressed to DGP highlighting the issues raised by Confederation.
Kalsotra also demanded that both the cases, Udhampur and Akhnoor, should be registered under SC/ST Act as soon as possible. Prominent among those who joined protest included Sardari Lal Bangotra, Narinder Singh Khalsa, Shashi Syal, ML Chadgal, Tarsem Mottan, Ramesh Sarmal, Rangesh Chander, Bansi Lal, Sat Pal Bhagat, Shafi Bajjad, Harasis Kranti, Jang Bahadur Valmiki, Rajesh Kumar, Rakesh Bassan, Mukesh Bhagat, Madan Sarngal and Karan Raja.
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