From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 6:48 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Update 17.01.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Update 17.01.10
No eviction of SC/ST families - The Hindu
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/17/stories/2010011760020300.htm
'Landlords exploited Dalits in Aldur' - Deccan Herald
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/47070/landlords-exploited-dalits-aldur.html
Donnish Hauteur? - Out Look India
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263782
The Hindu
No eviction of SC/ST families
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/17/stories/2010011760020300.htm
Special Correspondent
| Possession deeds to be issued: Minister |
Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Welfare of Scheduled and Backward Communities A.K. Balan said here on Saturday that the government would not evict Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe families living on surplus or puramboke land. He was addressing a function at the Ninankonam colony in Kilimanoor Assembly constituency during a tour of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe colonies in the district.
Mr. Balan said the government did not intend to evict the 51 families who had encroached upon private land and the 91 families settled on surplus land in Ninankonam colony. "Even though encroachment cannot be justified, they will not be displaced. The government will initiate moves to issue possession certificates to the 142 families," he said.
Navayikulam panchayat president Shajahan presented a memorandum to the Minister, urging the government to remove the legal hurdles in issuing possession certificates. N. Rajan, MLA, presided over the function. District Panchayat President Anavoor Nagappan and Vice President B.P. Murali were among those present.
Later, addressing a meeting at the Idinjaar Scheduled/Scheduled Tribe colony, Peringamala, the Minister said he would take steps to write off the arrears on electricity bills of residents who had their connections cut off due to non-payment of bills. He said all eligible families would be provided electricity for their houses. Mr.Balan said 416 acres of land had been identified for distribution.
Deccan Herald
'Landlords exploited Dalits in Aldur'
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/47070/landlords-exploited-dalits-aldur.html
Aldur, Jan 15, DHNS:
''People with vested interests among the upper class are responsible for the pathetic life condition of Dalits in Machagondana Halli,'' said JD(S) District Convener K T Radhakrishna.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, after listening to the grievances of Dalits in Machagondana Halli, Radhakrishna said that Dalits in the region were being exploited by landlords and people from upper class in the region. Moreover, they were also trying to take away Dalits land.
"Those people did not allow Dalits, who live in huts without any basic facilities, to come to the mainstreams of the society," he charged. There is no legal hurdle before the government to issue title deeds to Dalits. The Dalit colony is situated outside the college campus, he said adding that lack of political will is the only reason why title
deeds were not distributed to Dalits.
At any cost, Dalits, who dwell in the colony, should not be shifted. Moreover, they should be given title deeds for their land and infrastructure should also be provided for their colony, Radhakrishna emphasised. Government should take initiative to reclaim land
encroached by upper class people in the region, he added.
Memorandum to DC
JD(S) and BSP workers submitted a memorandum seeking title deeds for Dalits of Machagondana Halli colony to the Deputy Commissioner R Narayanaswamy. They alleged in the memorandum that a local person had encroached about 10 acres of land near the Dalit colony in Machagondana Halli. They charged that those people's representatives neither raise voice against the land encroachment, nor help Dalits in
the colony.
'Report ready'
Chikmagalur Taluk Tahsildar Veena said that the Gram Panchayat had submitted memorandum seeking sites few months back. The Revenue Department officials had already conducted survey in 10 acres of land and a plan was also prepared. The complete report has been submitted to sub division officer Dayanand, she said adding that there is no legal obstacles in providing sites for deserved Dalit families.
Tahsildar clarified that the charges of negligence made by Gram Panchayat members against Revenue Department officials is far from truth. All initiatives were taken to help Dalits in time, she added.
Out Look India
Donnish Hauteur?
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?263782
Top JNU professors oppose quotas in academic posts to "maintain quality"
Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University is often at the vanguard of issues deemed liberal, progressive and politically correct. So when an institution like it takes the unprecedented step of opposing the constitutional provision providing for reservation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the physically handicapped on its academic faculty, it is bound to raise both questions and eyebrows.
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"Reservation above the assistant professor level will ruin JNU's quality of education, making it a third-rate varsity."Bipan Chandra, Former history professor
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In what might shock many liberals, 30 professors on the academic council wrote to vice-chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya on November 25 last year, expressing strong opposition to the said quota. In language that smacks of elitism, the professors raise concerns about how JNU would lose its academic sheen if reservation was allowed at the level of professors. Their concern was aroused by an advertisement put out by the varsity for 149 faculty positions, over half of which are reserved at the level of professor and associate professor for SC/ST candidates.
Incidentally, the said positions under quota comprise the 22.5 per cent reservation mandated in the Constitution. Furthermore, a resolution to implement this was passed in 2007 by the executive council (EC) of JNU—its supreme decision-making body—as per UGC guidelines. Yet, the academic council said: "This new step, which is not legally binding on JNU, has been taken without consultation with the faculty.... Considering that this has very serious implications for the long-term academic development of this premier university, we suggest the EC reconsider the decision."
This letter was sought to be discussed in the executive council meeting held on January 11. The topic, though not on the meeting's main agenda, figured "under any other item". Most academic council members present were in favour of scrapping the provision for reservation. Sources say EC member and former JNU student P. Sainath cautioned the academic council against challenging a constitutional provision.
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"OBC reservation was debated at length. How come quotas in the academic faculty is not debated at all?"Mridula Mukherjee, Director, NMML
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The signatories to the academic council letter comprise the venerable heads of departments of JNU. The list includes Aditya Mukherjee, director of the Institute of Advanced Study, Kamal Mitra Chenoy, incharge, Group of Comparative Politics and Political Thought, and Professor Pralay Kanungo, director, Centre for Study of Discrimination and Exclusion. Others on the council who signed include Mridula Mukherjee, director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, and former VC Yogendra Alagh. All expressed concern on the serious implications of the decision to reserve higher posts in the academic faculty.
Lending their support to the academic council, a formidable number of former vice-chancellors and professors wrote to the chairman of the EC. The letter written by the likes of P.N. Srivastava, Asis Datta, Y.K. Alagh and former professors Bipan Chandra, Yogendra Singh, C.P. Bhambri, T.K. Oommen and Tapas Majumdar read as follows: "If steps are taken which prevent it from remaining one of the premier centres of excellence (which is what we fear will happen by limiting, through reservation, the scope of selecting the best faculty at the senior professor and associate professor levels), the chief victim will be the disadvantaged sections of Indian society. If JNU declines, the well-to-do will move to foreign and private universities, and the disadvantaged will no longer be able to get world-class education....."
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"I support reservation. But the university act says changes in posts are to be discussed with the academic council."Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Former president, JNUTA
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The letter also says it backs the academic council. "We would like to put our weight behind the academic council decision and urge the JNU executive council to hold its earlier decision in abeyance till the various centres, schools and the academic council thoroughly discuss the matter and arrive at a consensus," the note signed by former VCs state.
The manner in which the debate was initiated and conducted came as a surprise to some faculty members, who cautioned the council that the move would amount to challenging a constitutional provision that aims at the inclusion of the most discriminated sections of society.
Former VC Yogendra Alagh, currently vice-chairman of the Sardar Patel Institute, Ahmedabad, says, "JNU tries to meet the formula prescribed by the government but doesn't follow it mechanically. We don't believe that at every level of recruitment a required percentage of candidates need to be represented. At the same time, we were, and are, very conscious about the inclusion of underprivileged candidates. It is for this reason that we worked out a system of deprivation points to enable deserving people from far-flung areas to come to the campus." Alagh says JNU was once rated among the top 100 universities in the world. "There is a minimal standard that needs to be followed if the university aspires to be a world-class one," he says.
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"There has to be a minimal standard to be observed if JNU is to continue as a world-class university."Y.K. Alagh, Former vice-chancellor
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JNU sources say the decision to implement reservation or not is not the preserve of the academic council. Says Y.S. Alone, assistant professor, School of Art and Aesthetics: "It is an executive order as mandated in the Constitution and no one, let alone the academic council, can challenge it. Reservation is done by executive order, and so it is with JNU, when the EC supported it in 2007. An academic body cannot question it merely on the grounds that the provision is not binding on the university."
As per the constitutional provisions, 22.5 per cent posts should be reserved for each level of the academic faculty. But, since 2007, no vacancies at the level of professor and associate professors have been filled up in this category, though the university took the decision to reserve posts way back in 1983. According to officials in the administration, there are around 27 SC/ST assistant professors in the faculty and many of them have come without the aid of reservation, yet the university shows their names in the reserved category.
.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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