Police fail to address our complaints, say Dalits
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Hindu/400x60/0 T.S. Ranganna National Human Rights Commission issues notice to police for failure of action Bangalore: Chikka Alaghatta village in Chitradurga taluk has 300 families, of which 100 are Dalits, most of them belonging to the Madiga, a sub-sect among the Scheduled Castes. They were nursing a desire to have a primary school under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Rangaswamy, who had a stint as a primary school teacher, got elected to the Alaghatta Village Panchayat and obtained sanction to start a school for Dalits. This reportedly upset a section of the upper caste families. In March 2006, some of them attacked Mr. Rangaswamy. Attacked They allegedly attacked him again when he got a job for a Dalit in the panchayat. Gangamma Hemachari, a gram panchayat member belonging to Vishwakarma caste, had invited him for tea when a group of people belonging to the upper caste threw stones at him. The member said that some villagers had declared Rs. 1 lakh reward for his head. He is afraid of going back to the village. Santhosh S. and his mother, Lakshmamma, of Kankenahalli colony in Magadi taluk complain that two villagers had assaulted him two years ago for refusing to work in their fields. Mr. Santhosh lay unconscious in hospital for 21 days. The Kudur police have not arrested the accused persons and instead are allegedly forcing him to strike a compromise with the attackers. Hotteppana Halli in Challakere taluk has been witnessing unrest between Madigas and Gollas for 50 years. The Gollas are allegedly preventing Dalits from carrying on unauthorised cultivation on Gomal lands. Shanmukhappa alleged that his brother Jagadish was killed in the presence of the police. But, the Challakere police failed to act. H.N. Shivamurthy, district in-charge of the Dalit Liberation Human Rights Forum-Karnataka, demanded that Hotteppana Halli should be declared a Dalit village and the Dalits be given land.. The list of atrocities on Dalits goes on. Barbers reportedly refuse to shave Dalits, numbering around 700 in Kestur village in Yelandur taluk. Hotels serve food on paper to them. R. Manohar of the South India Cell for Human Rights, Education and Monitoring alleged that the Superintendent of Police, Bangalore Rural District, had failed to reply within four weeks to the notice issued to him by the National Human Rights Commission on July 19, 2007. The notice was issued for police failure to act on the cell's complaint that Dalits in Narayanaghatta, Muthanallur, Halechandapur, Singena Agrahara and Yedanahalli in Attibele police station limits were assaulted by the upper caste in July.
