SC officer quits after district magistrate humiliates

A scheduled caste (SC) officer resigned allegedly after he was humiliated and assaulted by a district magistrate in full public view in Uttar Pradesh.

Bindu Prasad, who was assistant regional manager (ARM) with the UP State Road Transport Corporation and stationed at Ballia, about 400 kilometres from here, alleged that district magistrate Bhawani Singh Khangarot ''abused'' him and ''held'' him by the ''collar'' in the former's office.

''The district magistrate made casteist remarks.....he abused me and dragged me to his car by holding me by collar,'' Prasad said in his resignation letter to the government.

Prasad said that the district magistrate was ''upset'' with the arrangements made by the Transport Department to shift around 900 inmates of the district jail to other prisons after the Ballia jail got flooded following heavy rains a couple of days back.

''I can not tolerate such humiliation,'' Prasad said in his resignation letter.

Khangarot, however, dismissed the allegations and said that the ARM failed to arrange buses in time to shift the prisoners.

SC outfits have sharply condemned the district magistrate's behaviour and demanded that he be suspended immediately. ''The DM must be acted against..this kind of behaviour can not be tolerated,'' said A K Verma, an office bearer of an SC outfit.

Official sources here said that a probe had been ordered into the matter. ''The Commissioner of Varanasi will conduct a probe into the matter...further action will be taken after the report is submitted,'' said an official here.