CM absent; Cong MP, Oppn MLAs walk out of meeting

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 23

Three Dalit MLAs of Opposition parties and Congress MP Shamsher Singh Dullo walked out of a meeting of the state-level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee for Scheduled Castes and Tribes here today after Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh failed to turn up. They also dubbed the Congress government “anti-Dalit”.

The first to accuse Capt Amarinder of being “non-serious” on Dalit issues was Dullo, a former PPCC chief. “His (CM’s) absence from the meeting shows how serious he is about the issues concerning SCs and Backward Classes. The quorum was incomplete without the competent authority — the committee chairman. If the CM was indisposed, all MLAs and MPs should have been informed in advance and the meeting postponed,” Dullo later told The Tribune.

Dullo said it was mandatory that the meeting be convened once in six months, but none had been held ever since the Congress government came to power over 11 months ago.

“Dalits in Punjab are facing problems, mostly because of the state government’s lackadaisical attitude. As an MP, I struggled hard to ensure that Rs 140 crore was released for the post-matric scholarship scheme. The state government could not give its matching grants. As a result, there is a high dropout rate of Dalit students. There is no substantive action in cases of atrocities on Dalits. Rich farmers are getting crop loan waiver, but the Dalit tenant farmers are left out,” he added.

The meeting of the 16-member committee — including the CM and 10 other Congress MLAs — was scheduled post lunch today, and 31 agenda items were to be discussed, including the status of police cases concerning atrocities on Dalits, the status of Centrally sponsored SCschemes and the social tension in villages because of Dalits not being given their one-third share in cultivating village common land.

As the CM was indisposed, he deputed Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal to attend the meeting.

However, some members of the committee, including MLAs Pawan Kumar Tinu (SAD), Som Parkash (BJP) and Budh Ram (AAP), accused the government of not being serious about issues concerning Dalits.

“They are not even concerned that the conviction rate in cases concerning Dalits is just two per cent, mainly because the police are getting compromise done in most cases. We wanted to discuss this and ensure that the chairperson issued necessary directions to the state DGP. The diversion of funds meant for SCs, too, needed the CM’s intervention,” Tinu told The Tribune.

Ministers in damage-control mode

Shamsher Dullo and three Opposition MLAs told Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Manpreet Badal that if the CM was unwell, the meeting should have been postponed. However, the two ministers decided to carry on with the meeting. 

Later, in a press release, the duo lashed out at the Opposition MLAs: “Instead of participating constructively in the deliberations, they chose to walk out. We did not cancel the meeting, which was being held after three years, in the interests of the SC/BC community. The CM would be present at the next meeting.” Both, however, did not comment on the outburst of their own party’s MP (Dullo).