Anti-Dalit Stand Of West Bengal Govt. Condemned

Calcutta: The West Bengal SC/ST Employees Welfare Council and the Bengal SC and Tribes Federation state council meeting held here on July 24 in resolution condemned the anti-dalit stand of the Marxist-led Jyoti Basu Govt. for not conceding the legitimate demands of the dalits. While they were demanding appointment of one-fifth of the Ministers belonging to SC/STs in the State Cabinet, to be in proportion to their population. Chief Minister Jyoti Basu took only one Cabinet Minister and another as Minister of State. The meeting demanded that constitutional reservation be introduced in the coming panchayat elections, About 400 delegates representing 16 districts of the State attended the meeting. A five-member presidium comprising Dr. A. K. Biswas. S. R. Biswas, N. N. Mondal. S. C. Rov. and Harihar Biswas, was in charge. Sudhir Ranjan Das & Issac C. Tirkey, general secretaries of two organisations, submitted their reports. At an earlier meeting they demanded the inclusion of Ambedkar’s life history in school textbooks, and renaming the Park St. in Calcutta after Dr. Ambedkar. It also invited the attention, of the govt to the prevalence of wide-spread atrocities and torture of Untouchables in the State.