From: Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC <pmarc2008@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 3:25 PM
Subject: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Update 20.01.10
To: Dalits Media Watch <PMARC@dgroups.org>
Dalits Media Watch
News Updates 20.01.10
Plan panel considers earmarking 15% budgetary support for SC/ST schemes - Indian Express http://www.indianexpress.com/news/plan-panel-considers-earmarking-15-budgetary-support-for-sc-st-schemes/569466/0
Laha Gopalan arrested in cheating case - Express Buzz
'Ensure that complaints of Dalits are taken seriously' - Times Of India
'Include all Muslims in BPL, then exclude the well-off' - Indian express
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/include-all-muslims-in-bpl-then-exclude-the-welloff/569084/
Indian Express
Plan panel considers earmarking 15% budgetary support for SC/ST schemes
Priyadarshi Siddhanta Tags : budgetary support, UPA, india
Eager to revive its image among the under-privileged sections of the society, the United Progessive Alliance (UPA) is keen to ensure that the funds spent by all the central ministries are earmarked for the marginalised groups, particularly the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), in proportion to their population.
The Planning Commission is actively considering a proposal of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that all union ministries earmark at least 15 per cent of their respective Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for the welfare schemes of SCs and STs in the next fiscal.
The proposal by the social justice ministry amply exemplifies UPA's eagerness to woo the SCs/STs , who are believed to have drifted away from from the Congress party to regional parties championed by regional leaders like Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav. So the UPA leadership is understood to have unanimously endorsed the thought of outlaying huge funds for the welfare of the marginalised populace in a bid to exemplify its thrust on inclusiveness, sources said. Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too had directed the Planning Commission to ensure that the funds allocated for the socially disadvantaged groups — SCs/STs and OBCs — are spent in a time-bound manner.
The move comes at a time when the Congress, under party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, is making a vigorous bid to regain its lost ground in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. With the finance ministry agreeing to a 15 per cent hike in GBS, the overall tone of the next Budget is set to be on the social sector, the sources pointed out. Among the major social sector programmes that are likely to get major allocations include the food security bill and right to education for all. Sources said the Food Security Bill, which aims to provide subsidised grain at Rs 3 per kg to Below Poverty Line (BPL) households, would mean an expenditure of Rs 25,000 crore
(on the basis of the current BPL population).
But interestingly in pursuit of its aam aadmi agenda, the UPA II has withdrawn its focus from the rural development schemes, except the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, to the social sector schemes.
The Prime Minister had asked the Plan panel to closely monitor the implementation of schemes specially focused on this segment of society and ensure that the benefits reach the masses. The Plan panel has accordingly mooted a separate independent evaluation office (IEO) to assess the extent to which the government's flagship schemes are benefiting the poor. The evaluation of the IEO would be different from the Mid-Term Appraisal in the sense that the IEO would look at the performance of specific social welfare schemes, while the MTA would take a comprehensive stock of the whole plan strategy.
Express Buzz
Laha Gopalan arrested in cheating case
First Published : 20 Jan 2010 01:42:00 AM IST
Last Updated :
PATHANAMTHITTA: Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi president Laha Gopalan, who spearheaded the Chengara land agitation, was arrested by the Pathanamthitta Police on Tuesday and later remanded in judicial custody for 14 days in a cheating case registered in 2007.
Gopalan was arrested on a long-pending arrest warrant issued by Chief Judicial Magistrate Shajahan and was remanded in the Pathanamthitta sub-jail.
He was taken to the Poojappura Central Jail in the afternoon.
On hearing the arrest of Gopalan, the Chengara land agitators staged a sit-in in front of the Pathanamthitta police station.
Indefinite dharna
The activists began an indefinite dharna seeking the immediate release of Gopalan in front of the Mini Civil Station after he was taken to the Poojappura Central Jail.
The police arrested Gopalan in a cheating case, 53/07, registered in the Pathanamthitta police station in 2007 by Kunjukutty, 49, and his younger brother Georgekutty of Thekkumalayil Palliparambil, at Kumbalathumon in Vadasserikara, DySP P.S.Sabu said. The complainants had alleged that Gopalan took Rs 2,700 each from the brothers on the false promise of allotting government land with title deeds.
The brothers said in the complaint that Gopalan collected money from several people on the false promise of giving government land, Sabu said.
Eight more cases, including a murder attempt and two others with arrest warrants, are pending against Gopalan in the Pathanamthitta Police Station, the DySP said. In Konni police station also, several cases are pending against Gopalan.
However, the cases against him in connection with the Chengara land agitation were excluded from the arrest as per the agreement reached between the Government and the Vedi, Sabu said.
Times Of India
'Ensure that complaints of Dalits are taken seriously'
TNN, 18 January 2010, 10:17pm IST
ALLAHABAD: Taking serious note of increasing incidents of crime against the members of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, district magistrate
Sanjay Prasad on Monday asked the district police to step up its efforts of pinning down culprits responsible for such crimes.
While presiding over a meeting of district vigilance and monitoring committee meeting attended by people's representatives, the official's attention was drawn towards the fact that perpetrators of crime against Dalits were roaming scott free.
Prasad directed the district social welfare officer to ensure that complaints of the Dalits were taken seriously by the authority concerned and a detailed report of action taken was sent to the people's representatives including MPs and MLAs.
He also directed the authorities to hold a fresh inquiry into incidents of murders of SC/ST people committed after the year 2008 and ensure speedy justice to the family members of the victims. He added that there was no dearth of funds for providing relief to the victims and aggrieved families. He also asked the ADM city and SP city to hold fortnightly meetings of atrocities committed against the Dalits.
Indian express
'Include all Muslims in BPL, then exclude the well-off'
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/include-all-muslims-in-bpl-then-exclude-the-welloff/569084/
In a move that could stir the political pot, the Rural Development Ministry, under Congress leader C P Joshi, has proposed "automatic inclusion" of Muslims in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list of families along with Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs).
Aware of the political sensitivities involved, the Ministry plans to replace the word "Muslim" with "Minority" to pre-empt opposition, especially from BJP-ruled states.
Inaugurating a conference of Social Editors, Rural Development Minister Joshi said that to simplify the process and ensure that vulnerable sections are not left out from the BPL list, his department favoured automatic "inclusion" and "exclusion".
It has been proposed, he said, that SCs, STs and minorities be automatically included in the BPL list and then well-off families excluded on basis of Income Tax returns, land records etc.
--
.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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