Congress govt slammed for ‘antiSC’ stance

CHANDIGARH: The National Scheduled Castes Alliance, a socio-political organisation, on Friday slammed the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in Punjab for its alleged “anti-scheduled castes” stance.

Along with the ruling party, it also criticised other political parties such as the BJP, SAD and AAP for “playing with the emotions and dreams of the scheduled castes community”.

“The Congress government has failed to take steps to prevent atrocities against the members of the Scheduled Caste community. It is a trend which never seems to end... The SCs are wooed by fake promises of development and socio-economic justice before an election for their crucial votes. But in reality, these parties are more like the enemy than the friend of the scheduled castes community,” Paramjit Singh Kainth, the president of the organisation, said.

This social segregation of the Scheduled Castes in Punjab, deliberately done by the government, had been evident from recent incidents — a case in Faridkot where an SC teacher accused the chairman of an Adarsh school of rape and a murder of a person of the scheduled castes community in over a ‘shamlat” (common) land dispute in Sangrur — he added.

None of these cases had seriously been taken by the police, which is directly under the control of the state government, Kainth alleged.

“Just like the previous SADBJP regime, the Congress government is deliberately trying to suppress the Scheduled Castes community and protect the rich and powerful,” he said.