Jalandhar, July 09: A team of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes led by its chairman Bizay Sonkar Shastry will visit Punjab today to assess the alleged increase in atrocities on Dalits in the state and the role of state government in tackling the situation. The team would visit Talhan village, Buta Mandi and Bhattiabet village, where caste clashes between Jat Sikhs and Dalit communities had taken place recently, and talk to the people to have first hand information about the clashes, official sources said.

After holding discussions also with the administration, the team would present its detailed report on the clashes to the the Commission, sources said, adding the state government had been informed of the team's visit. Meanwhile, Vijay Sampla, vice president of the state BJP today said he had submitted a detailed report on alleged social boycott of Dalits in some of the villages in Punjab and state government's failure to combat the atrocities on Dalits.

Bureau Report