Ahmedabad: Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil on Monday alleged the rights of Scheduled Caste and Schedule Tribe were not being protected in Gujarat.
"Despite a provision in the Act that the committee to review the implementation of law relating to protection of rights of SC/ST should meet twice a year, it met today after a gap of over two years," he claimed.
"It clearly reflected the anti SC/ST stance of government. Last year, out of 822 cases of atrocity on SCs in Gujarat, only 47 persons got punished, while 755 were acquitted," Gohil pointed out.
Gohil said in all such cases the state government should have filed appeal against the acquittal but the government filed appeal only in 15 cases. Because of no action against the offenders, law breakers get emboldened to commit crime with impunity.
Alleging that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was trying to suppress the voice of opposition here, Gohil said the chief minister has not included Congress MP or MLAs in this review committee despite a provision in law.
PTI
First Published: Monday, May 07, 2012, 23:55