Sandeep Bhushan
Friday, April 7, 2006 (New Delhi):
=Scheduled+Caste+commission+under+scanner&id=86660
In the light of the new proposals for extra reservation, there has been a raging debate in the country.
The debate surrounds the government's responsibility to ensure equal opportunity for the oppressed classes.
The scheduled caste commission, which is the apex consultative body on all matters relating to the welfare of scheduled castes, is in bad shape.
It is understaffed, underpaid and the chairman alleges that nobody is willing to listen to him despite repeated complaints, hinting that the problem could well be the fact that he's an NDA appointee.
The scheduled castes commission was set up under Article 334 of the Constitution.
It is now replete with patient petitioners, overflowing files and a backlog of nearly 40,000 cases from workplace discrimination to fake certificates.
Delivering mandate
The question that arises is whether the Scheduled Caste Commission will be able to deliver on its mandate to look after the range of issues affecting Dalits.
Suraj Bhan, who occupies a union cabinet level post as chairman, disagrees.
"This has become a waiting room for disgruntled secretaries and IAS officers. Three secretaries have already quit in the last two years. A fourth is preparing to leave," he said.
Bhan believes the commission's problems stem from the fact that he is an NDA appointee.
The commission is at least 60 employees short, including a DIG level police officer, a law officer, computer operators and personal staff for the chairman, which is why he spends most of his time at home.
But this is not all. Ministries don't respond to his communications and the commission has produced just one report over the last six years.
The tenures of two chairmen and an acute financial crunch has led to a situation where the commission can't even pay a two-year-old bill which it had incurred while hosting a meeting of scheduled caste MPs in the Parliament.
"There is an acute financial crunch. There is no money even to organise an event. We have computers but no computer operators," said Bhan.
He has met the minister of social justice and empowerment, the law minister, the president and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but he says there's been no response.
For the last two years, top government officials, including the Prime Minister, have been talking about reforming the bureaucracy, making it more service-oriented.
But the case of the SC commission suggests that this has not happened, which is surprising considering Dalits are an important political constituency for the ruling party.
The debate surrounds the government's responsibility to ensure equal opportunity for the oppressed classes.
The scheduled caste commission, which is the apex consultative body on all matters relating to the welfare of scheduled castes, is in bad shape.
It is understaffed, underpaid and the chairman alleges that nobody is willing to listen to him despite repeated complaints, hinting that the problem could well be the fact that he's an NDA appointee.
The scheduled castes commission was set up under Article 334 of the Constitution.
It is now replete with patient petitioners, overflowing files and a backlog of nearly 40,000 cases from workplace discrimination to fake certificates.
Delivering mandate
The question that arises is whether the Scheduled Caste Commission will be able to deliver on its mandate to look after the range of issues affecting Dalits.
Suraj Bhan, who occupies a union cabinet level post as chairman, disagrees.
"This has become a waiting room for disgruntled secretaries and IAS officers. Three secretaries have already quit in the last two years. A fourth is preparing to leave," he said.
Bhan believes the commission's problems stem from the fact that he is an NDA appointee.
The commission is at least 60 employees short, including a DIG level police officer, a law officer, computer operators and personal staff for the chairman, which is why he spends most of his time at home.
But this is not all. Ministries don't respond to his communications and the commission has produced just one report over the last six years.
The tenures of two chairmen and an acute financial crunch has led to a situation where the commission can't even pay a two-year-old bill which it had incurred while hosting a meeting of scheduled caste MPs in the Parliament.
"There is an acute financial crunch. There is no money even to organise an event. We have computers but no computer operators," said Bhan.
He has met the minister of social justice and empowerment, the law minister, the president and even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but he says there's been no response.
For the last two years, top government officials, including the Prime Minister, have been talking about reforming the bureaucracy, making it more service-oriented.
But the case of the SC commission suggests that this has not happened, which is surprising considering Dalits are an important political constituency for the ruling party.
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"Ours is a battle not for wealth or for power.
It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for the reclamation of human personality."
- Dr BR Ambedkar
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