Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 20.04.13
Professor's casteist remark invites SC panel wrath - The Times Of India
National SC panel orders security for Dalits
Policemen unsure of motive for Bhiwani Dalit's murder - The Tribune
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130420/haryana.htm#4
Inter-caste marriages taking toll in jatland - The Times Of India
AICTE norm for SC, ST students upheld - The Hindu
The Times Of India
Professor's casteist remark invites SC panel wrath
Yudhvir Rana, TNN | Apr 20, 2013, 03.30 AM IST
AMRITSAR: An assistant professor of Patiala's government medical college (GMC) is in the soup for allegedly passing casteist remarks against an MBBS student in a classroom.
Turning the heat on the professor, the SC/ST commission on Friday asked the Patiala police to register a case against him.
Commission vice-chairman Raj Kumar, who belongs to Amritsar, said that he ordered an FIR after an inquiry report held the professor guilty of the charges.
The probe was conducted by a three-member committee comprising Dr H S Sandhu, DrManjit Singh Bal and Dr Anita Gupta.
According to the inquiry report, the incident happened on April 9 during a class ofHarsimran Singh, an assistant professor in the ophthalmology department of GMC, Patiala.
Harsimran passed the casteist remarks against Amolpreet Singh after the student fumbled while answering the roll call.
The report states that Harsimran was taking attendance when he called for roll number 18
and Amolpreet whose roll number was 80 answered it which enraged the professor who remarked, "You bespectacled chap, stand up and get out. I am sure that only you are capable of this nonsense."
The report says that the professor had denied making any casteist remarks against
the student.
Raj Kumar said as many as 26 students, belonging to different castes, of the class had filed a complaint against the professor alleging that he had also asked Amolpreet about his category, PMT rank etc.
The students' complaint quotes professor telling Amolpreet that "I have recognized you. Only an SC can do something like this."
The commission VC said that he has also directed the Patiala police to hold an independent inquiry into the incident.
When contacted, Patiala SSP Gurmeet Singh Gill said that he has marked the inquiry to a committee headed by a police officer of the rank of DSP.
"We will take action after receiving the report," said the SSP.
The Tribune
National SC panel orders security for Dalits
Policemen unsure of motive for Bhiwani Dalit's murder
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130420/haryana.htm#4
Tribune News Service
Bhiwani, April 19
The police is unsure about the motive behind the murder of a 20-year-old Dalit youth who was first tied to a tree and then a vehicle was used to hit him. Sources reveal that the two accused, who are on a five-day police remand, have admitted that they eliminated Jai Mal of Devsar village in Bhiwani because he was a hurdle in the way of the upper caste accused Parveen's "gestures" towards a woman of the victim's family, police officers have refused to confirm this version.
Meanwhile, a team from the National Commission of Scheduled Castes (NCSC) that visited the village last evening directed the authorities to provide adequate security to the Dalits.
The team told the authorities to set up a police post in the Dalit Basti of the village, if need arose.
Bhiwani Deputy Commissioner Ashok Kumar Meena and the SP Simardeep Singh accompanied the NCSC team to the village.
"We are investigating the killing but cannot yet say with certainty that the crime has been perpetrated by only Parveen and Kuldeep as the victim's family has named some other persons too," said Virender Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bhiwani.
He said that the "woman angle" had cropped up during the interrogation of the accused.
Jai Mal's body was found from a vehicle dumped in the fields of the nearby Kusumbi village and the accused had tried to give the killing the shape of an accident by smashing the front window of the vehicle on the accused.
The Times Of India
Inter-caste marriages taking toll in jatland
Deepender Deswal, TNN | Apr 20, 2013, 03.28 AM IST
ROHTAK: Inter-caste marriages, along with those of same gotra, are taking a toll on young couples and further deepening the rift between different castes in Haryana. In the last six days alone, three youths have lost their lives over relationships not given social sanction.
While an inter-caste marriage triggered an attack on dalits at Pabnama village in Kaithal district, a young dalit was brutally murdered for opposing his sister's relationship with an upper caste youth in a Bhiwani village. In Rohtak, an upper caste girl student of Maharshi Dayanand University and her dalit friend of the same university committed suicide after their families opposed their relationship.
According to D R Chaudhary, the founder of Haryana Parivartan Manch, an NGO, the problem lies with the upper castes. "The caste bias is prevalent across social, political and administrative systems in Haryana. A girl from upper caste marrying into a low caste is strictly taboo, while it is accepted if the boy is from upper caste," said Chaudhary.
"This is especially common among Jats and Rod ahirs. These communities have muscle power, political power and are land owners. They can approve of their men having relations with dalit women, but go mad if a dalit man has a relationship with their women," Chaudhary added.
According to him, absence of a powerful social reform movement against caste system in India, especially in Haryana, has been mainly responsible for this deep-rooted problem. "The new generation seems quite liberal in mixing up with cross communities but the elders still reign supreme in families when it comes to taking a decision about marriages," he said.
Sube Singh Samain, a Haryana khap leader, said although khaps have decided to keep away from inter-caste marriage rows, young couples tying the nuptial knot need to have the approval of their families. "The opinion of families matters a lot. If they are against a relationship, then these couples should understand it and heed by the advice of their parents. Problems begin only when they don't (go with the family's wishes)," said Samain.
One week's toll
April 14: Dalit boy Surya Kant marries upper caste girl Meena at Panbama village of Kaithal district, triggering an upper-caste backlash. While the couple managed to flee the village, lower caste villagers bear the brunt
April 16: Jaimal Kumar, a dalit, brutally murdered by an upper caste youth of Devsar village in Bhiwani district, for objecting to the advances made by the accused, from the upper caste, towards his sister
April 17: An upper caste girl student of MA economics in Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, commits suicide after her family disapproved of her plans to marry a dalit youth. Her boyfriend commits suicide a day later.
The Hindu
AICTE norm for SC, ST students upheld
K. T. Sangameswaran
HC bars State from lowering the mark
From the coming academic year, SC/ST students in Tamil Nadu will have to secure a minimum of 40 per cent marks to qualify for joining undergraduate courses in technical education. The Madras High Court has ruled that the State government is barred from fixing a lower eligibility mark than the one prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
The First Bench, in its order of Wednesday, declined to give a direction to lower the minimum eligibility criteria from 40 per cent as fixed by the AICTE to 35 per cent as prescribed by the State government for SC/ST candidates.
In its judgment on a writ appeal and a writ petition, the Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar, made it clear that by an order on August 22 last year, the court had given an interim direction that status quo be maintained. Students belonging to SC/SC(A)/ST who had obtained 35 per cent marks, but less than 40 per cent marks in the 10+2 examinations, got admission to the engineering colleges in the State. They were pursuing their studies at present. "Hence, all such admissions made during the years 2011-12 and 2012-13 in respect of SC/SC(A)/ST candidates shall not be disturbed, and they shall be allowed to pursue their course."
The Acting Chief Justice observed that so far as the issue that many seats had remained vacant in engineering colleges in the State on account of the prescribed 40 per cent eligibility criteria for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Caste-Arunthathiyar/ Scheduled Tribe was concerned, even before the AICTE had prescribed 40 per cent as the minimum eligibility criterion, seats in the engineering colleges relating to such categories remained vacant. In fact, for 2011-12 when for the first time the AICTE prescribed the eligibility criterion of 40 per cent for the reserved categories, the number of vacant seats in respect of the categories fell to 17,469 from 18,372 seats during the previous year.
Originally, the state government filed the appeal against a single Judge's order of July last year dismissing a writ petition. The Judge had held that the State had no legal or constitutional authority to challenge the AICTE regulations.
The Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Technical Education SC/ST Employees Welfare Association filed a writ petition seeking to quash the AICTE's notification of July 4, 2011, stipulating 40 per cent minimum marks for the reserved categories.
The State government submitted that the requirement of a higher percentage of marks would put the socially backward students belonging to SC/SC (A)/ST to serious disadvantage in getting admission to engineering courses.
The Bench said from Supreme Court decisions, the principles which emerged included that the State could not prescribe minimum eligibility criteria lower than what had been prescribed by AICTE. However, it could prescribe higher eligibility criteria. If the State fixed a higher minimum eligibility criteria than that fixed by the AICTE, admissions to technical courses should be made only on the basis of the State-fixed eligibility criteria, even though seats meant for the reserved category remained unfilled.
Applying the Supreme Court principles to the facts of the present case, the Bench said the State government could not have prescribed a lower eligibility criterion in respect of reserved category candidates, i.e 35 per cent instead of 40 per cent prescribed by AICTE. It could have, at the best, only prescribed equal or a higher than the minimum marks fixed by AICTE, the Bench said and dismissed the writ appeal and the petition.
--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")
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Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre- PMARC has been initiated with the support from group of senior journalists, social activists, academics and intellectuals from Dalit and civil society to advocate and facilitate Dalits issues in the mainstream media. To create proper & adequate space with the Dalit perspective in the mainstream media national/ International on Dalit issues is primary objective of the PMARC.
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