The Odisha Dalit Suraksha Samiti (ODSS), a body of real untouchable Scheduled Caste people in the State, on Thursday urged all frontline political parties in the State to give party tickets to real untouchable SCs as their candidates in all 24 Assembly and three lok Sabha seats which are reserved for them.
In open letter to BJD, BJP and Congress State chiefs the Samiti said, “Odisha records 16 per cent real untouchable SC population. We want to draw the kind attention of all concerned regarding the manipulative entry of 2 per cent Keuta/Kaibatra/Dhibar (Savarna OBCs) into SC list of Odisha through clandestine and fraudulent manner since December 2002 by falsely claiming themselves as synonymous of Dewar (Nomadic/Banjara) of Madhya Pradesh, not existing in Odisha thereby snatching away almost 80 per cent of the total reservations meant for the real untouchable SCs in education, employment and politics.”
“We urged all the political parties not to field duplicate SC people in the elections,” said Samiti president Gayadhar Mallik.