AHMEDABAD: The vigilance and monitoring committee, constituted by the Gujarat government to look into the atrocities committed against people belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribe communities, has not held a single meeting in the last two years.
The information was revealed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment while replying to a query raised by Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani in the state Assembly on Wednesday.
The committee was set up to take cases of atrocities in accordance with The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Responding to the revelations, Hitendra Pithadiya, the chairman of the Gujarat Congress Scheduled Caste Department, alleged that the BJP-led Gujarat government was “not serious” about crimes against Dalits and tribals.
“According to the SC/ST atrocities act, the meeting (vigilance) was to be held under the leadership of the Gujarat chief minister, the Director-General of Police (DGP) and other stakeholders, and cases of atrocities registered in the State have to be reviewed, but this government (BJP) is not taking the issue of crimes against Dalits seriously,” Pithadiya alleged.
The Congress leader claimed that according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, four incidents of atrocities against SC/ST occur in the State every day. “Gujarat has the highest rate of atrocities” he alleged.
According to the data provided by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, from 2009 to 2022, a total of 17,022 cases of atrocities against SC were registered. In these years, the highest number of cases–1477–were recorded in 2017, followed by 1,426 in 2018 and 1,416 in 2019. The lowest–1,008–cases were recorded in 2010.
