Govt to introduce bill on SC, ST in LS: Gehlot

Amid Congress attacking the NDA government of allowing to lapse an ordinance to strengthen the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, the Centre today said it will introduce the bill in Lok Sabha.

"The report of the Standing Committee has come. The Union cabinet on April 30 had decided to introduce the bill in its present form in Lok Sabha. We will try to get it passed by the House and we will succeed in that also," Union Social Justice Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot told reporters here.

The minister's statement comes in the wake of Congress President Sonia Gandhi writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday, expressing her disappointment that the NDA government allowed the ordinance to lapse by sending it to the Standing Committee.

Stating that though the Standing Committee submitted its report in December 2014, the government did not bring it to Parliament for passage in the Budget Session, Gandhi sought from the Centre to bring the bill for passage in the upcoming monsoon session.

She further had noted that the UPA-2 government brought in an ordinance which, among other things, sought to strengthen the implementation of the SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.

Responding to charges of Gandhi over rising atrocities against Dalits in BJP-ruled states, Gehlot questioned what the Congress leadership did when Dalits were attacked in Haryana when it (Congress) ruled the state.

"I want to ask Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi what action did their government take when attacks on Dalits took place in Haryana when Congress had its own government in the state," the minister said, while adding that prompt action was taken against incidents reported in Madhya Pradesh by the state government.