Dear friends,
Dr. R.K. Nayak is one of our best Dalit intellectual representatives (from
Orissa) in the Rajya Sabha. He was elected to Rajya Sabha (on Congress ticket)
only a couple of years ago. However, he has already made a very positive mark
among his peers. He has been elected chairman of the SC/ST parliamentary group,
and he is a member of several parliamentary standing committees. He very
approachable and readily available to address gatherings of activists.
Dr. Nayak is going to be honored with an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy in
Humanities by the prestigious New England University in New Hampshire in the
first week of May, 2008.
Friends, if you would like him to visit your region in the USA/Canada for a
get together with fellow activists in your region, you may get in touch with
him at his email address:
"Radhakant Nayak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,"Radhakant Nayak" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Just to be sure that your email catches his attention, you may also kindly CC
your invitation to him to me at my email address: [EMAIL PROTECTED] My other
email address [EMAIL PROTECTED] is too cluttered, but I use this latter one for
sending out group mails.
Thanks for your attention; looking forward to hearing from you soon.
With best regards,
Satinath
Satinath Choudhary <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dear friends,
I feel very happy to let you know that today, the first day of our three day
budget-protest dharna (27-29 Feb) was a grand success! More than 60 people
came. Two MPs (Honble Sitaram Yechury of CPM and Ramvilas Suman Samajwadi
Party) came, spoke and spent some time with us! I may give names of Dharna
attendees at a later point when I have more time. I am attaching a copy of a
picture for you.
Please do come again tomorrows (28th Feb, 2008) Dharna at Jantar Mantar from
10:30 am to 5pm, and in even bigger number the day after tomorrow (29th Feb)
for Dharna (between 10am to noon) at Jantar Mantar, followed by black-flag
rally towards the Parliament from noon to 2pm. Please bring your organizations
banners as well banners protesting the budgets.
Please allow me to re-introduce you to the reason behind this protest. At the
launching of 6th f-year plan the Indira Gandhis Union Government had made it
mandatory for the Union as well as all states as well as Union Territories to
make allocation towards Special Plan Component (SCP) for SC/ST in proportion to
respective population in respective states or UT or the Union, as the case may
be, for the benefit of SC/ST individuals, families and their hamlets. Later SCP
was labeled as Sub-Plan (SP). Some of us (Mr. Jai Bhagwan Jatava and Umesh
Babu) have obtained information via RTI that even when they do allocate a
fraction of what they should, they do not open an account for the same and no
one can tell if they did in fact spend any money for the benefit of SC/ST. Just
last year (2007-08), The Union Government should have allocated around Rs.
70,000 Crores towards the Sub-Plan for SC/ST. However, they allocated less than
half of the same. And for most of the allocated
money they did not bother open any account. For that reason no one can tell
how much the Union Govt. actually spent towards benefiting SC/ST individuals,
families and their hamlets.
In the following I am presenting to you a draft of the Resolution of the
Dharna-pradarshan that we would like to present to the Prime Minister and Sonia
Gandhi, after the rally. In case you have any suggestions please feel free to
send the same over to me at my special email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] At other email
addresses your mail may get mixed up with too many junk mails that I get there.
Draft Resolution
We the Concerned Citizens, Peoples Representatives, Academicians, Leaders of
Dalit Organizations, Dalit Rights Activists, Employees Associations, Student
Organizations protest the Union and States governments attitude to the
Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes in the Budgetary matters. We demand
serious implementation of the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub Plan in
the Union Budget and demand for reclaiming the Dalit Share in the Union Budget.
We further resolve that:
Union Budget 2008-09 must have 16 percent proportion of the plan budget
towards SCSP. And this must be reflected in all the ministries with clear
conceived schemes for individual and family benefits of SCs.
The planning commission, Union Government and State Governments must desist
from classifying a department as non-divisible and divert the funds from
Schedules Castes development.
There should be Enactment of Equal Opportunity Laws & Anti- Discrimination
Law in labour, land, capital, consumer goods, education, housing and other
important sectors.
The Union Planning Commission (UPC) should have an exclusive Deputy.
Chairman for SCSP and the member looking after SC progression be made an
exclusive Member Secretary.
Similar arrangement should be placed in the State Planning Commissions
(SPCs). In addition, at the ministerial level there should be a separate
Ministry for development of SCs- Ministry of Progression of Scheduled Caste
both at the Central Level as well as in the States/ UTs for the welfare and
development of SCs. There shall be a Joint Secretary in the PMO exclusively
devoted to SCSP.
The Nodal Ministry should outsource the expertise of at least 11 advisers
(for the 11 Sectors in vogue during 2006-07) and distribute amongst them the 70
ministries/departments of the Centre for consultative interactions with
respective Departments and for innovating inclusive programmes.
The unspent provisions, if any, in any sector should not lapse, but
automatically be credited to a Revolving Fund.
There should be Pre-Budget consultation on SCSP by the Planning
Commission/Prime Minster/Finance Minister/State Government
In the economy sphere women are also contributing equally, therefore in all
areas in proportion to the populations of women, budgetary allocations be made
in a special way. Special focus to be made for Entrepreneurship, Health,
Education, Skill Development, Land and Resource management and Social Security
of Women.
In case of Private agriculture sector, given the selective discrimination in
hiring and wage payment, legal provisions in the form of Anti-Discrimination
Act should guarantee legal protection against labour market discrimination to
Dalits/Adivasis in hiring and wage payment.
States should have monitoring mechanisms in the form of Equal Opportunity
Commission. Anti-discrimination law also needs to address discrimination in
renting of houses to Dalits and discrimination in space for construction of
houses in the residential areas mainly dominated by dominant castes as well as
discrimination in sale and purchase of agriculture land and leasing of Land.
Unless there is reservation in the Private Sector, there will not be equity
and inclusion of SCs and STs in the economy of the country.
There needs to be reservation in Defence Services, Judiciary, and similar
services where at present there is no provision of reservation.
Government needs to develop policy to increase the share of Dalits/Adivasi
employees in share capital of private and cooperative sector.
Credit is a critical aspect which nurtures enterprise and growth and it has
to be anti-discriminatory. The Private Sector banks and financial institutions
need to have a certain proportion in lending and finance to Dalits/Adivasis
business.
State needs to develop a reservation policy for admission to private
educational institutions, and to support the Dalit/Adivasi students to over
come hurdles to access.
The government should create a pool of state land which should be acquired
under ceiling and other public land like waste land, free of legal problems, to
be placed under the control of a specific authority. This land from the State
common land pool should be distributed to the landless Dalits/Adivasi
households as compensation for denial of right to land.
The States should ensure that Ambedkar Principles are widely published for
inclusion of SCs/STs in private sector.
Dalit Arthik Adhikaar Aandolan(DA3)-NCDHR,Rastriya Soshit Parishad,
National Forum for Social Action,Buddha Smriti Sansthan,Dalit Bahujan
Front,Prabuddh Bharti International,Baba Saheb Ambedkar society, Dalit Bahujan
Front,Think Tank for Progressive Action and Legislation,All India SC/ST/OBC&
EBC Federation
__________________________________________________________________
Dear Friends, in case you respond to any of my posts on any forum, please send
a copy of the same to the eaddress: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This ID is much less
cluttered, and letters on this ID are much less likely to escape my notice.
Regards,
Satinath Choudhary
__________________________________________________________________
Dear Friends, in case you respond to any of my posts on any forum, please send
a copy of the same to the eaddress: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This ID is much less
cluttered, and letters on this ID are much less likely to escape my notice.
Regards,
Satinath Choudhary
