PUNJAB CM ORDERS REVIEW OF CASES FILED UNDER SC/ST ACT

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered a review of all cases filed under the SC/ST Act in the state since January 2016 to identify those which have not been registered under the amended provisions, causing the victims and their families to be denied their due legal compensation.

The orders were issued following a meeting with a delegation of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, led by their chairman Ram Shankar Katheria and vice-chairman L Murugan, on Thursday, according to an official spokesperson.

The delegation told the chief minister that many police officers were still registering cases under the relatively milder provisions of the old SC & ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, instead of the more stringent clauses of the amended Act of 2015, which was notified in 2016. As a result, the victims or their families were not getting the higher compensation they were entitled to under the amended legislation.

The delegation also apprised the CM of the absence of awareness among police officers in the lower ranks, such as the IOs, about the amended SC/ST Act, 2015. Captain Amarinder directed director general (intelligence) Dinkar Gupta to arrange for the sensitisation and training of the police officers.

‘FILL POST OF STATE SC PANEL CHIEF WITHOUT DELAY’

A delegation of the National Scheduled Castes Alliance (NSCA) met National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman Ram Shankar Katheria on Thursday to draw attention on delay in the appointment of the state panel head and other issues pertaining to the Scheduled Castes in the state.

The delegation led by Paramjit Singh Kainth, which met Katheria in Chandigarh, said that the number of members in the commission did not proportionally represent the population of the SCs in the state. “There is a need to increase the number of members in the body and fill the post of chairman without any delay,” Kainth said after the meeting.