हिंदी
Ruling party leaders hampering development of the village, says village Sarpanch: NCSC asks authorities to investigate the matter and to submit ATR
Nawanshahr, August 2
After receiving scores of casteist complaints from Dalit community over the past many years, the National Commission for Scheduled Caste (NCSC) has now received a complaint from the sarpanch of village Sahungra, SBS Nagar, regarding the discrimination in providing development related works to the SC residents of a village.
Taking strong notice over the harassment, threats and discrimination in providing facilities to the residents of village Sahungra, SBS Nagar, Punjab, the Commission issued a notice to the SBS Nagar District Administration on Wednesday.
The Commission, on the orders of its Chairman Vijay Sampla, asked the authorities to submit an action taken report till August 10.
As per the information received by NCSC from—Rajbaiwinder Singh, Sarpanch, Gram Panchayat Sahungra, SBS Nagar—a pond is located in the village, which is filled with, contaminated and dirty water. For the past 30 to 40 years, dirty water from the pond enters the houses of the residents during the rainy days and most of the houses around the pond belong to the SC community. Also, the residents are prone of getting infected due to the dirty water, which is breeding ground for mosquitoes and flies.
The sarpanch, on the behalf of all the residents of the village, further informed that some of the village residents—Ajit Pal Singh, Satnam Singh, Harnek Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Satnam Singh and Lakhvir Singh—exert political pressure on him and threaten him of dire consequences, if he will allows execution of the development-related projects in the village. There is a fear of loss of life and property, the sarpanch added.
The Commission asked the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), SBS Nagar, Punjab, to investigate the matter and to submit the report till the stipulated time period, through post or email, based on the facts and information on the action taken on the allegation/matter.
Sampla cautioned the officers that if action taken report is not received within the stipulated time, then Commission might exercise the powers of the civil court conferred on it under article 338 of the Constitution of India and issue a summon for personal appearance before the commission in Delhi.
