Friday, November 12, 2010

[ZESTCaste] Khairlanji killings: SC issues notice to convicts

 

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Khairlanji-killings-SC-issues-notice-to-convicts/Article1-625522.aspx

Khairlanji killings: SC issues notice to convicts
Press Trust Of India
PTI, November 13, 2010First Published: 03:28 IST(13/11/2010)

The Supreme Court, on Friday, issued notices to eight persons, serving
25 years jail term each for killing a Dalit woman and her three
children at Khairlanji. A bench of justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur
issued notices to convicts on the CBI plea, which also sought
restoration of the trial court ruling awarding death penalty to six
out of eight of them.

Appearing for CBI, additional solicitor general Haren Rawal told the
court that all the eight persons also needed to be convicted under
various stringent provisions of Scheduled Castes and Tribes
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

CBI has moved the SC challenging the July 14 ruling of the Nagpur
bench of the Bombay High Court, which commuted the death sentence of
six convicts to 25 years imprisonment and fixed a similar sentence for
two others serving life term.

The case pertained to the brutal murder of four members of a Dalit
family by a mob on September 29, 2006.

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[ZESTCaste] ‘End atrocities against Dalits'

http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/09/stories/2010110952850500.htm

Tamil Nadu - Salem

'End atrocities against Dalits'

Special Correspondent

Demonstration staged in Salem

SALEM: Dalits and members of Arunthathiyar Makkal Iyakkam staged a
demonstration here on Monday demanding the State to enforce strictly
the provisions of the SC/ST (Prohibition of Atrocities) Act. They
condemned those who demanded its withdrawal.

The Dalits claimed that despite stringent provisions, untouchability
was still practiced at various places in Tamil Nadu.

But of late there was a call from a few who demanded its withdrawal.
Based on a research on clashes, majority of the victims were Dalits.

Even United Nations had noted that caste differences should be
eradicated. Every year the numbers of affected Dalits were increasing.

Another study, they claimed, had pointed out that double tumbler
system was prevailing in 14,000 villages in Tamil Nadu and 300 types
of untouchability were practiced.

Despite Constitutional safeguards and various laws, many atrocities
were taking place against Dalits.

Many officials were reluctant to take action against the accused. The
government should register cases against officials who refused to
register cases under the act.

Officials who did not conduct proper inquiry should be placed under
suspension. Iyakkam's Deputy general secretary P Chinnadurai presided
over the agitation.


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[ZESTCaste] Legal Aid Advised to End Hostility Among Dalit Groups

 

http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?700901

Legal Aid Advised to End Hostility Among Dalit Groups
Madurai | Nov 12, 2010

The Madras High Court Bench here suggested that the Virudhunagar
District Legal Services Authority (LSA) could provide legal aid and
undertake literacy programme in W.Puthupatti in Virudhunagar district
to end the 25-year long hostility between two Dalit communities.

Justices R.Banumathi and S.Nagamuthu, disposing of a PIL petition,
said in the interest of public and in view of serious allegations made
in the affidavit regarding the hostility between Parayar and Pallar
communities, the District LSA could be involved in this matter.

The LSA could co-ordinate with the government officials, including the
Collector, Superintendent of Police and other higher officials, and
look into the grievances...And take effective steps for restoring
cordiality and peace between the two communities.

Petitioner B.Stalin's counsel submitted that there were about 1,000
Pallar families, mostly Christians, and 250 Parayar families, who were
Hindus,in W.Puthupatti.

There had been tension between these two communities for the last 25
years and several persons had been murdered.

The unending hostility was spreading and continuing in the absence of
proper and effective check. The state administration wass not
adequately sensitising the police and revenue officials to handle the
problems in a humane manner. "No positive action has been taken by the
state government so far," the counsel alleged.

Filed On: Nov 12, 2010 14:57 IST , Edited

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[ZESTCaste] In the face of onslaught, DMK stands by its Raja

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_in-the-face-of-onslaught-dmk-stands-by-its-raja_1465412

In the face of onslaught, DMK stands by its Raja

Published: Friday, Nov 12, 2010, 2:00 IST
By D Ram Raj | Place: Chennai | Agency: DNA

Shrill demands by the opposition parties and their repeated
adjournments in parliament, and the fervent pleas by the ruling
coalition have, so far, have made little headway, so far.

According to sources, Karunanidhi is reluctant to take any action
against Raja as he is projected as the Dalit face of the party in New
Delhi. Moreover, the common belief in Tamil Nadu is that it is
virtually impossible that the massive largess that Raja is alleged to
have earned through the 2G spectrum scam was not shared with others.

But following J Jayalalithaa offer on a private TV channel that her 18
members in the Lok Sabha will support the UPA in lieu of the DMK's 18
MP, Congress sources now believe Raja's days are numbered.

"It is now sure that Raja will go, it is just a question of time and
whether he will resign on his own or the Congress will ask him to
leave," said a Congress source.

The fear in the Congress is that the prime minister's office had
cleared a few files in good faith — a fact Raja has been iterating
time and again. "If these were taken away by the CBI when they raided
Raja's office, there is little to worry," said the source, "But the
worry is that there may copies of those files.

Raja was born on May 10, 1963, in Velur village, Perambalur district,
to Andimuthu and Chinnapillai. He represents the reserved Niligiri
constituency.

A master of law from Government Law College, Trichy, Raja first became
a minister in 1999 when he was made union minister of state for rural
development. He subsequently became union minister of state for health
and family welfare.

Raja took over the telecom portfolio on May 18, 2007, after his
predecessor, Dayanidhi Maran, also from the DMK, fell out with his
granduncle Karunanidhi.

Maran was stripped of the ministry after his newspaper, Dinakaran,
published a survey that said that of Karunanidhi's two sons, MK Stalin
was more popular that MK Alagiri. The latter's supporters allegedly
attacked and burned down the Dinakaran office in Madurai, killing
three staff members.

The Marans later patched up with Karunanidhi and Dayanidhi was given
the textile portfolio, which he holds.

After the UPA returned to power, many believe that Raja would not be
made a minister given the outcry over the 2G spectrum scam. But
Karunanidhi was adamant that Raja be reinstated in the cabinet and
with the same portfolio again.

Known to be close to Karunanidhi's family, Raja is married to MA
Parameswari and has one daughter.


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[ZESTCaste] Caste’ing Live Chitradurga’s Madigas And Nayakas

http://www.countercurrents.org/teltumbde111110.htm

Caste'ing Live Chitradurga's Madigas And Nayakas

By Anand Teltumbde

11 November, 2010
Countercurrents.org

Caste in India is a terrible thing. It can surface anywhere in a
weirdest manner and forms. In the Chitradurga district of Karnataka,
famed for the rule of Nayakas, the chieftain whose descendents have
strangely found a place in the schedule for Tribes, prepared by the
independent India to do them social justice, it still survives in its
pristine glory. Nayakas, who in no way reflect their regal connection
today however have a complex of being the rulers of the region for
over two centuries after the fall of Vijayanagara empire and until
Hyder Ali dislodged them in 1779. Their ancestors were known for their
bravery that had compelled the mighty Vijayanagara king to concede
Chitradurga governorship to their Timmanna Nayaka and which had
returned Hyder Ali's attack twice before he finally managed to defeat
them; they try out their bravery over the poor Madigas in every
village. Result, a strange and bizarre casteism perpetrated by the
Scheduled Tribes over the Scheduled Castes that are uncritically
clubbed together as 'dalits'.

Whispering Crimes

The misdoings of Nayakas have been pervasive but occasionally they
precipitated into a notable incident that found place in local
newspaper but rarely leaked past the district boundaries. Through the
network of rights and dalit activists the attenuated whispers of crime
sometimes reached out. Taking a cumulative stock of them we organized
a fact finding cum a survey of the condition of Madigas, the victims
of the Nayaka overlordship. Along with me Adithya of PUCL, Karnataka,
Abhishek of Swabhimani Dalit Shakti, Bangalore and Harish of
Pedestrian Pictures, Bangalore comprised the team. Within our
resources we just managed to visit four villages on two days, 27 and
28 October 2010 and scratch the veneer of quietude they wore and sense
the terrible undercurrent of caste atrocities.

While all the villages superficially projected a macro picture of
Madigas being traditionally oppressed by the Nayakas into submission,
the micro reality revealed streak of awakening among the former.
Although the poverty and numbers of Madigas rendered them generally
tolerant to the tyranny of relatively rich and numerous Nayakas, there
were enough signs that they were prepared to resist. The very
incidents of atrocities were rather the proof enough that the Madigas
were resisting. Submission does not beget atrocity; resistance
definitely does. The attitude of the administration and the media was
typically apathetic. They would first get into denial mode and then
would jump onto generalizations that such happenings were not unique
to the district and could be found all over the state. May be, but
then it is more terrible!

Bhagyama of Laxmisagara

There was a shocking incident last year of 30-40 people attacking and
parading a hapless dalit woman naked in a village Laxmisagara, some –
km away from Chitradurga. Bhagyama and her husband Sukanand, who live
now in distant Kolar district, where Bhagyama was given a job in a
school by the government, had come on one of their dates to attend the
court. Bhagyama, a well built young woman in her twenties narrated her
harrowing tale wiping the tears welling into her eyes as she spoke.
She was attacked because the Nayakas suspected her to be behind the
elopement of their girl –Mamata with a Madiga boy- Kumar. Mamata and
Kumar, in love with each other, had run away from home to Davangere on
17 January 2009 to marry. The Nayaka mob entered Bhagyama's house,
beat her up and her husband, tore her clothes away, paraded her naked
to the panchayat office and locked her up there. Three other boys,
Ashok, Manju and Kippesamy, who came to help her also got beaten Some
one reported the matter to Baramsagara police station. When the police
arrived, they picked up Bhagyaman in the same state, her husband along
with the three youth to the police station. When they stopped at a
dhaba for breakfast, a person recognised Bhagyama and gave her a cloth
to wear but the police did not allow her. She just wrapped it round
her bare body. At the police station they took her signatures on blank
papers and threatened her that they would burn her if she spoke about
it outside.

The Nayakas, with the help of Baramsagara police station learnt of the
whereabouts of Kumar and Mamata and went to Davangere. They had
married and were at the Gandhinagar police station. While the
Baramsgara Police were bringing them back at 9.30 pm, on the way the
Nayakas attacked Kumar but he managed to escape. Mamata was brought
home and taken to the police station the next day. It was only when
Mamata testified that Bhagyama did not have any role in their affair,
that the police had released her. She was admitted into the government
hospital for eight days for severe bleeding at her private parts.
Police did not take any action and rather registered a counter case on
her along with other Madiga boys. S Anjanayya, Ex MLA was prepared to
settle the matter but later denied that such an incident ever took
place. He said that the Madiga youth had committed a mistake and hence
the Nayakas had beaten some Madiga boys. Only after the matter was
flashed in DNA of 27 January 2010 the things began to shake. The
Swabhimani Dalit Shakthii (SDS) organised a rally in Chitradurga town
wherein Bhagyama publicly narrated her plight before over 1000 people.
The DC and SP who were in denial mode until then took cognisance of
the crime and arrested one Nayaka youth, Vasant. Around then Udaya TV
channel beamed an interview with Shivlingam, president of the SDS, who
spoke out all the details of this case. The CM ordered an enquiry into
the incident and Bhagyama was given Rs. 25000 and a job in Morarji
Desai Residential School, Dodda Ballapura in March 2009. She gets Rs.
2000 a month and stay in a rented house. But much of this money goes
away in her bus fare when she has to commute to Chitradurga for her
case and the counter case filed by Nayakas.

When we visited her village to see the places and meet with witnesses,
the fear was still palpable in the eyes of Madigas even after nearly
10 months were elapsed. We wanted to meet some of the Nayakas but they
feared that even we might be insulted or attacked.

Famished Fighters of Hosrangapura

Hosrangapura is relatively a tiny village of 22 Madiga and 85 Nayaka
households but has created a big history of caste oppression on
account of their battle for land. Initially, the Madigas cultivated 11
acres of Devasthanam land controlled by Nayakas. But later, the
Nayakas took away it and drove Madigas to occupy and cultivate 16
acres land at the other end of the village. For some years this
arrangement went smooth but the Nayakas began asking the land as
gomala (grazing) land. Nayakas attacked Madigas in 1991 when some 4-5
Madigas were injured and a case was filed against Nayakas in the
police station. Nayakas got scared and let the Madigas cultivate the
land. However, in 2001 the Nayakas filed a case before the civil judge
to get the land back as gomala land. The Jr Divisional judge ruled
against them in 2006 on the strength of the affidavit of the Tehsildar
that the land was under cultivation of the Madigas for over 25 years.
Nayakas appealed to Sr Divisional judge, who also ruled in 2009 that
the land was not gomala land and opined that the Tehsildar could
consider allotting it to the Madigas. Not satisfied with these
verdicts, the Nayakas appealed to the High Court but their appeal was
dismissed.

After the judicial process established that the land was no gomala
land, when the Madigas went to cultivate it in 2010, the Nayakas
attacked them allegedly with the support from Chandrappa, the local
MLA, injuring many of them.. SDS took up their case and organised a
rally in Chitradurga on 15 September 2010 and exposed the matter to
the district administration. Nothing however happened because the
Bagarhukum committee that allots the land called it a gomala land in
defiance of all the court judgements and declined to allot it to the
Madigas. It was found that the committee was wrongly constituted.
After the agitation of the Madigas under SDS, the government properly
constituted it with Basavarajan, MLA, Chitradurga as its chairman.
While the administration voiced sympathy for Madigas and even MLA also
is said to be in their favour, the fact remains that the Madigas did
not get their land back. They had a massive procession in Chitradurga
on 29 October which marked a indefinite dharana, starting with the
protest of children. The people who get Rs 30 for a whole day's of
hard labour have battled against the powerful Nayakas for the last 10
years for the land they cultivated for more than 25 years and still
justice evades them!

Budhihali to Budddhanagar in Desperation

Buddhihalli, some 35 km from a Chellakere town deceptively looked
normal, with entire of its Madiga community, save for five
blacksheeps, having left it to settle in the makeshift colony which
they named Buddhanagar, on the outskirts of Chellakere town to escape
oppression of the Nayakas and Golas. Madigas historically worked as
bonded labour and faced all kinds of oppression at the hands of
powerful Nayaka community. They narrated harrowing stories of how
Nayakas could do whatever they wanted, including sex with the Madiga
women with impunity. The village had a lot of government land which
was auctioned by the panchayat committee every year for cultivation
but it always went to Nayakas. Over the years, the Madigas developed
aspiration to escape the bondage of the Nayakas. On 22 December 2009
they cleared the bushes on the government land and took them as
firewood but were stopped by the Nayakas. On 25 December, Nayakas
called a panchayat meeting but the Madiga members refused to
participate. They were forcibly taken to the meeting. At that night,
around 10.30 pm, Nayakas attacked the Madigas, not sparing even their
women and children. From next day, they decided to observe undeclared
social boycott. Nayakas wooed five Madiga families on their side and
began harassing through them. Many skirmishes took place. The
harassment reached such a pitch that Madigas were left with no option
than leaving the village. Their exodus stopped at the outskirts of
Chellakere.

A local activist Shiv Murthy of Human Rights for Dalit Liberation,
Karnataka (HRFDLK) took up their case and exposed the matter to the
outside world. DNA of 27 January covered the plight of Madigas,
focusing mainly on the sexual abuse of Madiga women. It shocked people
and many organizations, such as AIDWA, PUCL rushed for fact finding.
All these however failed to wake up the administration which still
remains unmoved over the plight of Madigas. On the contrary, it echoes
Nayakas' accusation that Shiv Murthy, who has since left his home and
been staying with the Budhihalli Madigas in a hut, as trouble monger.

Tension at Renukapuram

Unlike most villages, Madigas in Renukapuram compared well with the
dominant Nayakas in numbers but still they could not resist their
oppression because the other communities (Lingayats, Newars, Shettys,
etc.) ganged up against them rendering them a miniscule minority. In
1995, the Madigas first raised their voice against the 'two tumbler
system' being followed in the restaurants. They would be served
eatables in old newspapers whereas others were given it in plates. The
fight broke out and four Madigas were injured. While they were going
to police station in a bus to file a complaint, they were again
stopped and 14 people were beaten. The complaint was filed but the
Madigas had to flee the village for a fortnight as they were
threatened that they would be killed. The village declared social
boycott of Madigas. The case ran for 15 years. A compromise was struck
and the case was withdrawn. The normalcy prevailed for a couple of
months but again the Nayakas started harassing the Madigas. During the
last village festival, a Madiga boy was beaten in front of the police
sub-inspector for trying to participate in pulling the chariot. A
police complaint was filed but the tension in village is built up to
such an extent that the customary preparations for the Renuka festival
to be observed in November were still not in sight.

In 2007, this village had seen a gruesome murder of a Madiga bonded
labourer, Nagendra, who had fallen in love with the daughter of a
Lingayat landlord. Nothing ever happened and the case was hushed up as
suicide.

Conclusion

The four villages that we visited reflected their specific problems
but they all underscored the deep rooted practice of untouchability
against the Madigas by the Nayakas, the dominant community in the
Chitradurga district. Even the other castes like Lingayats and Golas
followed the Nayakas in oppressing the Madigas. This sample study,
without any claim to its scientific design, adequately supports the
surmise that the entire Chitradurga district (if not beyond) is
afflicted with the acute problem of untouchability, declared unlawful
through the Constitution. The apathetic attitude of the administration
is abominable towards this blatant crime. The civil society, media and
even the dalit leaders failed to take up the issues of the victims.
The latter divided in various factions appear scoring over each other
than working to ameliorate the plight of the Madigas.

Interestingly the perpetrators of the crime here are the people who
are scheduled tribes. While, it is stereotypically noted that the
Atrocity Act fails to apply to them, it is forgotten that these crimes
are cognizable in a normal IPC. Nayakas go scot-free not because of
the inapplicability of the Atrocity Act but because of the general
bias of the State against the Madigas, the Dalits. This bias marks out
the essential character of the contemporary castes that spells a break
between the caste Hindus and non-caste Dalits. Tribals, it must be
remembered are not untouchables; they are actually not a part of the
Hindu social order. The extension of special provisions for the
untouchables (SCs) to them was on account of their secular seclusion
for a long time and therefore possible bias of the society against
them. While there was an objective criterion of untouchability for
inclusion of people in the SC-schedule, there was no such objective
criterion for inclusion of people in the schedule for tribes. As a
result, many powerful communities got included in that schedule,
depriving the other genuine tribes from the Constitutional provisions.
The examples are replete with the cases of some single tribe in any
state usurping all the benefits of the STs. Nayakas are the definite
case in Karnataka. It may be noted that many communities agitate for
their inclusion into the schedule for tribes (e.g., – in Rajasthan)
but none demands being included as the scheduled caste.

It exposes the folly of definitional adventurism of Dalits that
casually combines the untouchables and tribes or the bahujan strategy
of the politicians and their cohorts that conceives the merger of
castes against the imagined enemy of Manuwada, ignoring the material
contradictions among these castes. Madigas of Chitradurga were
bewildered at the prospects of their emancipation because as anywhere
else they are structurally handicapped in the battle against the
dominant castes.

Dr Anand Teltumbde is a writer, political analysts and civil rights
activist with CPDR, Mumbai E-mail: tanandraj@gmail.com


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[ZESTCaste] Aakrosh A Director's Pain

http://nonqaba-cinemamytake.blogspot.com/2010/11/aakrosh-directors-pain.html

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Aakrosh A Director's Pain
In the hurry to see how actors deliver their lines, we forget the
director's pain. Tyler Perry, Nandita Das, Mani Ratnam, Vipul
Amrutlal, Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker etc. have all made films in
frustration about the state of the world and their countries in
particular.

Tyler Perry's pain is obvious in Daddy's Little Girls where drug lords
sell drugs to school children. Nandita Das explores the pain of
ordinary people, both Hindus and Muslims in Firaaq. Mani Ratnam bleeds
in Ravaan for class systems that divide his people. Anil Sharma
explores how ordinary people get caught in the middle in
India-Pakistan relationships in his war film, Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan
Sathiyo.

Karan Johar looks at how Americans of Indian origin were treated after
9/11 the bombing of the World Trade Centre in the film, My Name is
Khan. Ashutosh Gowariker gives us the historical context of the
Muslim-Hindu conflict in India in his sumptuous film Jodhaa Akbar.
Aakrosh, directed by Priyadarshan is a recent example of a film about
a director's pain.

The film is about the so-called 'untouchables' in India who I
understand prefer to call themselves Dalits 'broken people.' It is
about a father's dream, Pratab Kumar's father who believed that
education will help his children shake off the yoke of belonging to
India's lowest social class.

Police cover-up
Priyadarshan starts off the film with a demonstration in Delhi about
three students who went to Chanchar and never came back. Delhi sends
the CBI to the area to investigate. The team is headed by Siddarth
Chaturvedi played by Akshaye Khanna. He works with Captain Pratap
Kumar (Ajay Devgan).

The two men are from two schools of thought. Siddarth does not
understand why everybody in Chanchar runs away from them when they ask
questions. Pratap Kumar has been down that road before and he knows
that villagers are paralysed with fear.

Priyadarshan uses Pratap's youth to help the audience understand the
Dalit story. Pratap is ironing his shirt when he tells Siddarth about
Ganga and Jamna a Dalit family in a village called Shabrampur. He says
they worked very hard until they were able to buy a little farm. They
had some buffalos after that and things were going well until a Thakur
got jealous.

What made the Thakur mad is that Ganga said he can never stop being a
Dalit, but with education, his children might be richer than the
Thakur. Ganga thought it was a joke. The Thakur did not. Their farm
was burnt to the ground buy persons unknown.

Ganga brought sweets for his family and told them not to worry. He had
laced with poison and the whole family died, but one boy survived.
"What happened to the boy who survived" asked Siddarth. "He's ironing
his shirt," he replied Pratap.

Siddarth is frustrated because he wants to do everything by the book
so that he can nail Ajatshatru Singh, the evil policeman played by
Paresh Rawal and the minister's brother-in-law. He wants to find the
people who killed Deeno and his two friends. Deeno is a Dalit. Pratap
is always on reverse gear because he knows about Dalits because he is
one himself. He survived because of education.

It becomes clear as the film unfolds that Roshni's father killed Deeno
because he was in love with Roshni played by Amita Pathak. Her family
is Brahman and wants her to marry Vijay Singh. During the hearing
Roshni says she didn't kill Deeno. She loved him. "He was very
intelligent. That is why he was admitted in medical school. I thought
that my family would accept him once he is a doctor."

Disregard for the law
Aakrosh is difficult to watch because of how women are treated.
Ajatshatru Singh slaps Geeta (Bipasha Basu) his wife. In one scene he
used his belt all over her body including her face. Pratap can relate
to Roshni's and Deeno's love because he loved Geeta when they were
young, but her father asked him to forget her. Somebody higher up was
interested in her.

Geeta's father said, "Life in the village is merciless, here an entire
family will have to pay the price of someone's mistake." That is what
happened to Deeno's family. Deeno came down to Chanchar to take Roshni
away. Roshni's father hacked him to death.

They killed Deeno's brother-in-law when they heard that Siddarth and
Pratap tried to talk to him. They strung him to a tree with Johnny his
young son. Jamunia, Deeno's sister's was brutally attacked. They cut
her tongue so that she couldn't be a witness.

You can see the director's pain in various scenes. Siddarth enters a
barber shop. The minister is getting a shave and Ajatshatru the
policeman is watching cricket. The minister is very happy to hear that
Siddarth is a Brahman. Siddarth comments about the cricket team,
"There is Muslim, Dalit, Sikh and Shatrya. I wish we could learn from
cricket."

Dalits fight back
Priyadarshan decided to show Dalits fighting back, marching and
defending themselves from the police. More than 300 people were killed
in Chanchar and the CBI top brass came down to scold Siddarth and
Pratap.

It is effective the way the director demonstrates that the issue of
higher and lower caste won't go away. There is a scene where the
minister spoke for a long time, using his hands but we could not hear
what he was saying. It was obvious that he was defending being a
Brahman.

I don't much about the issue because I'm an outsider. I am however a
South African. Africans, the majority of people in the country, are
not and were never inferior. We had land God allocated to us. Britain,
France, Germany and other western countries had guns and other
artillery. They took it by force and made us slaves. Bas!

Drum, the 2004 film directed by Zola Maseko, starring Tumisho Masha,
Moshidi Motshegwa and Taye Diggs demonstrates what the whole world
knows but turns a blind eye, because South Africa is now free. Drum is
also a good example of a director's pain.

Nonqaba waka Msimang is the author of Sweetness the Novel.

www.dorrancebookstore.com


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[ZESTCaste] RTI yet to reach Orissa’s tribals, Dalits

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/rti-yet-to-reach-orissas-tribals-dalits_100458050.html

RTI yet to reach Orissa's tribals, Dalits

November 11th, 2010 - 4:32 pm ICT by IANS
Bhubaneswar, Nov 11 (IANS) They constitute some of the most neglected
sections of Indian society, but Orissa's tribals and Dalits may soon
make use of a powerful tool to improve their lot — the Right to
Information (RTI), which has so far not touched their lives.

The state information commission has intensified efforts to educate
tribals and Dalits — who constitute 22 and 11 percent, respectively,
of Orissa's population of 36 million — on RTI after reports that many
were being cheated by government and private agencies.

"Despite several initiatives in the past, knowledge of RTI is not up
to the mark in some areas, especially those inhabited by Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes," state information commissioner
Jagadananda told IANS.

The commission plans to set up around 200 'RTI clinics' in the state
within a year, he said. "These clinics will have RTI forms, and will
create awareness among people," Jagadananda said.

"We need to create more awareness among them. The commission has
already taken several initiatives, but various NGOs also need to act
more," he said.

"We have publicised the act, collaborated with the local authorities
in the panchayat, block and district levels and launched awareness
campaigns," he said.

The commission has also published a 40-page booklet in eight tribal
languages for distribution, apart from booklets in Hindi, Oriya and
English, he said.

"We are distributing them across the state. However, the response is
not very encouraging," he added.

Although the RTI Act came into effect Nov 22, 2005, the state's
information commission became functional in 2006.

According to official data, the authorities had received 37,997 RTI
applications in 2008-2009, against over 1,000 in 2007-06. The figure
for 2006-07 was below a thousand. Fewer than 100 RTI applications were
filed in the state during 2005-06.

The revenue and disaster management departments received the maximum
queries, which accounted for 28 percent of all applications filed in
2008-2009. The Panchayati Raj department received the next highest
number.

Most of the RTI applications were filed by government employees, both
retired and serving, and were mostly about problems related to their
service or departments, he said.

"We have also observed that the applications were filed mostly by
males. Participation from women is not forthcoming," he added.


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[ZESTCaste] HC upholds provision in UP service rules for SC/ST

 

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4567236

12/11/2010
HC upholds provision in UP service rules for SC/ST

Allahabad, Nov 11 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court today upheld a
provision of government service rules in Uttar Pradesh whereby
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, who had joined services
availing reservation, had also been entitled to "consequential
seniority" while deciding promotions.
Passing the order, a division bench comprising Justice S K Singh and
Justice Sabhajeet Yadav observed "it can not be said that by insertion
of concept of consequential seniority the Article 16 (right to
equality of opportunity) of the Constitution of India stands destroyed
and abrogated."
The order came while dismissing the writ petition of Mukund Kumar
Srivastava, an executive engineer in rural engineering, who had
challenged Rule 8-A of the UP government service seniority rules,
1991, whereby entitlement of consequential seniority had been
introduced.
The court ruled "we are of the opinion that Rule 8-A has merely
effectuated the provisions contained under Article 16 (4A)) of the
Constitution of India, whereby benefit of consequential seniority has
been given to the members of the SC/ST due to reservation in promotion
by obliterating the concept of catch-up rule of seniority."
The court also turned down the petitioner''s prayer for declaring the
aforesaid Rule as ultra vires of the Constitution, but said he could
place the claim of his own promotion before the UP Public Service
Tribunal.

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