The leaders alleged that their demands have been pending for the last four years and the officials didn’t respond to their written complaint. The protesters accused the officials of following anti-dalit policies.
Absence of several officials including excise officials at meeting held under anti-harassment law on Wednesday further disappointed the leaders. They said, though all the officials were given prior intimation on the meeting, they remained absent which showed that they are uninterested in the dalit issues.
Further, the leaders alleged that the officials seemed to be under the impression that addressing dalit issues is the responsibility of the Social Welfare Department.
They said the tahsildar had remained absence giving prior intimation about him going on an important official work, while, they said, they could not excuse other officials including excise officer.
They further alleged that the excise officials were regularly irregular to the meetings and these officials have turned blind eye to the illegal sale of toddy which is rampant in the dalit colonies. In each village there are nearly 10 to 15 illegal liquor dens, but no action has been taken against them. Besides, though the officials raided a house where they seized 2 cans of spurious liquor stored illegally, but the culprits are let off scot-free to this day, the protesters complained.
Officials ‘baffled’
Lack of interest among the officials is made further evident by not producing the proceedings of the previous meetings. The officials were baffled when they were asked about details of the actions taken on the issues raised in the previous meeting.
Irked over this the leaders boycotted the meeting and walked out raising slogans against the officials. They took out a protest rally in front of the taluk office.
Tahsildar Reshma Tahasina, Social Welfare Officer Doddanarasegowda pacified the protesters and postponed the meeting to Thursday.
Leaders Meluru Munaiah, Manjunath, Malluru Dyavappa, Goramadagu Narayan-aswamy, Tirumalesh, Munivenkatappa, Dyavakrishnappa, Narasimhamurty, B K Dyavappa and others were present
DH News Service
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