Following rise in cases of crime against Dalits in the State, the Haryana Government on Thursday directed concerned officials for the appointment of an officer of District Attorney office as nodal officer for dealing with the cases relating to Scheduled Castes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Haryana Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education Vijai Vardhan who is also nodal officer for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 issued the directions while presiding over the quarterly review meeting under Rule 9 of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Rule, 1995.
He also asked the concerned officers to prepare a list of crimes related with the people belonging to Schedule Castes like fire incidents, stone pelting, murder and rape cases so that efforts could be made for deciding these cases on priority basis.
Delivery of fast justice in such cases would send a positive message in the society, he added .
Vardhan said that concerned Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police and other officers should take stock of the situation by paying visit at the site where heinous crime related with SCs takes place so that feeling of security could be created among affected people.
As per the information, more than 400 cases have been registered under this Act in 2015 till October in the state.
The dalits (20 percent) are the second biggest group in population after jats (about 25 percent) in Haryana but the cases of brutal violence against dalits is a constant phenomenon in Jat land.
Earlier this week, an incident involving the beating up of a dalit man in a clash between his family and upper caste youth over land in Mujadpur village of Hisar district came to the light. last month, two dalit children were burnt alive at Sun Perh village in Faridabad while in another case, a minor dalit boy, who was charged with theft of a pigeon, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Haryana's Gohana town.
Since then, the opposition has continued to pitch up the ante against the ruling BJP blaming it for failing to protect the dalit population in the state.
As many as 315 cases of atrocities against dalits have been reported to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) from Haryana this year till October. 213 such cases were reported to NCSC in 2014, 105 cases in year 2013 and 110 cases of atrocities against dalits in 2012, as per the data with NCSC.
830 cases of crime against dalits were reported from Haryana in 2014, as per the data of National Crime Records Bureau.