[Statement Forwarded by Anoop Patel, AIBSF]

A group of students and teachers of Delhi University staged a protest demonstration in front of Ramjas College. A delegation met the Principal, Ramjas College and put forward their demands. After staging the demonstration the group marched to the office of the Dean of Students' Welfare (Delhi University) and continued the protest. They forced the Dean of Students' Welfare to come out and listen to the demands. But the issues that were raised were not resolved and therefore we have decided to continue with the agitation and take it to the higher authorities, namely the Vice-Chancellor of the University and to the Ministry of Human Resources Development.

Although DU follows the cut off system for admission for General and OBC, Ramjas College has rendered the cut off for OBC by restricting their admission to the number of sanctioned strength. Therefore, the General Category admission goes well above the sanctioned strength, but the OBC students are denied seats even if they meet the cut off. 27% reservation for OBC has thus been rendered meaningless in Ramjas. The following demands were put forward:

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Karthik Navayan

SC, ST Sub-Plan Nidhula Saadhana Ikya Kaaryacharana Committee (United Action Committee to claim SC, ST Sub-Plan Funds) was formed under the leadership of Sri Kaki Madhava Rao, Former Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh as its chairman and Retired Justice K. Ramaswamy as adviser. Retired IAS Officers Sri B. Danam, Sri K.R. Venu Gopal, Sri T. Gopal Rao and Retired IPS Officers Sri Rushya Rao, Dr. D. T. Nayak, Dr. V. N. V. K. Sastri are some of the important persons as its members. National Dalit Forum, Sakshi Human Rights Watch- A P and Center for Dalit Studies have come together to provide secretarial assistance to the committee.

The Committee has brought together nearly 100 people's organizations and NGOs under its fold. The core committee constituted a drafting committee to draft the bill to provide statutory status to SCP and TSP. The drafting committee consisted of Sri K. Madhava Rao, Sri B.Danam, Sri V.Nanda Gopal, Mr. R.Ravi Kumar. The Drafting committee met several times to articulate the bill. The salient features of the Bill are:

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Union Budget 2012-13

Response from Dalits and Tribals

Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan/NCDHR*

The Total Plan Expenditure of Union Budget 2012-13 BE is Rs.3,99,011 cr. For Special Component Plan (SCP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) Rs. 37113.03 cr. and Rs.21710.11 cr has been allocated which is altogether 9.3% (SCP) and 5.4% (TSP) as compared to the legitimate allocation of 16.2% for SCP and 8.2% for TSP. For STs there is decrease of 0.1%. There is gap of Rs. 38,535.54 cr. for both communities.

As per the guidelines, each Ministry has to allocate fund under SCP/TSP but it is unfortunate that only 25 departments have allocated for SCs and 28 for STs. While all other departments like Energy, Coal, Industries 70-75 departments have not allocated any funds. Quality of allocation is less in the growth sectors and more in the survival areas.

If we calculate spending on SCs & STs in the Total Budget (Plan+Non-Plan) of Rs.14,90,925.29 cr, the share of both communities come to only 3.9%.

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Karthik Navayan

A February 2011 press release of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolan says: 

* Once again UPA Denies SCs Rs.Cr. 24,570 in Scheduled caste Plan and STs Rs.Cr. 10530 in Tribal Sub Plan

 * Together for SCs & STs, allocates only 4.03% for in both Plan and Non-plan budgets

 *The Demands for Separate budget head for SCs and STs realized

In the budget that has been presented today, the expenditure for both SCs and STs in Plan and Non-plan budgets is a mere 4.03% of the total budget. For a population of 24.4% of the total country this is a mere lip-service and shows no real policy concern for the development of the vulnerable sections of the society.

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Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – An Appeal

 17/02/2012

To

Shri Kiran Kumar Reddy

Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh

Subject: Special Component Plan for Scheduled Castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds – an appeal for a two days discussion on this subject in two houses of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature – Regarding

Dear Sir

Permit us to recall the discussion some of us had with your good self on 12/03/2011 on the subject of the unspent Special Component Plan for Scheduled castes and Tribal Sub Plan funds in our state over the period covered by the years 1992-93 to 2010-2011 (19 years) amounting to Rs 40,829.65/- crores. At the time we had brought to your kind attention that the actual allocation made till then had been only Rs 32,953.87 crores and that against this amount allocated, the actual expenditure had only been Rs. 19,225.24 crores. Thus, over all, an amount of rupees 21,604.41 crores which should have reached the Scheduled Castes legitimately for their development never reached them. As for the Scheduled Tribes the magnitude of recourses denied to them in this manner has been of the order of Rs 5,000 Crores. We had also submitted a written representation to you dated 5th March 2011 making several suggestions as to how this situation could be set right. Our main prayer to you in the discussion with you and in our written representation was that you should lead these efforts yourself personally as chief minister, given the extraordinary importance of the subject for the poorest of the poor on state. We await your response in this regard even now.

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Please sign the following petition at the ipetitions site, here. 

~~~~~

To

Mr. Salman Khurshid

Minister of Law and Justice,

4th Floor, A-Wing, Shastri Bhawan,

New Delhi-110 001

Subject: Install Dr .B.R. Ambedkar portraits in Supreme Court, all Benches of High Courts, all Lower Courts and all Police Stations in India

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Recommendations on Reforming Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) / Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP)

-- National Advisory Council

[The Working Group of the National Advisory Council (NAC) on Dalit Issues have prepared a set of Draft Recommendations to be considered by the National Advisory Council on the reform of the Scheduled Caste Sub Plan. These Draft Recommendations are placed in public domain for comments]

1. Approach Paper to the 12th Plan states that "An important initiative in closing the gap between the SCs/STs and the rest is the concept of Special Component Plan, consisting of the Scheduled Castes Sub‐Plan and the Tribal Sub‐Plan. This strategy purports to direct plan resources towards meeting their needs in proportion to their share in the total population. Its implementation, however, has been deficient both in the States, and the Centre. A new system must be devised for the Twelfth Plan which can overcome the difficulties experienced in the past and ensure that the sub‐Plans are implemented in letter and spirit".

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