On an old enmity, three persons, allegedly, bashed up a man and later set him afire amid the presence of his family in Etah district on Saturday night.

The police, however, downplayed the incident saying the man set himself afire reason of which are yet to be ascertained.

As per reports, Dinesh Kasyap (30) resided at Kanshi Ram Awasiya Colony (house number 67, block number 6) under Kotwali police station with his family. He was an alcoholic and used to frequent the house of Rinku where he had drink sessions with Rinku, Pinku and Puttan.

Two days back, Dinesh had a dispute with the trio while drinking at the house of one of the named persons. After the verbal duel came into notice the locals intervened and Dinesh returned his home then.

On Saturday night, Dinesh was at home as his family consisting father Ramesh Chandra, mother Mithilesh were celebrating Karvachauth. His sister Arti and her husband Ajay were also at his home.

While the family was busy in celebrating the festival, the trio stormed the house and hold Dinesh. They doused Dinesh with kerosene and then set him afire before fleeing the scene. Dinesh ran to save his life but his attempt stoked the fire further causing him burnt badly in the incident. He was later taken before he be taken to hospital. He later died during treatment.

Dinesh's claimed that Rinku and his aided set Dinesh afire in vengeance. "The trio had a dispute with Dinesh two days back. In the incident, Dinesh had retaliated when was attacked. The trio felt themselves insulted and killed him," his family claimed.

The family further alleged that the police was trying to downplay the incident making it up a suicide case and was trying to save the miscreants at the direction of big-wigs.

Inspector Kotwali police station, however, said Dinesh was an alcoholic and set himself afire in frustration. He said the police were trying to find out the reason behind the suicide.

DIG (Aligarh range) BP Tripathi said the family members had given a complaint against the trio and necessary action was being taken.

Later an FIR under section 302 of IPC, for murder, and section 436 of IPC, for mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house was registred in this connection. Further investigation in the case is on.

The Times Of India

Dalit youth killed for loving upper caste girl

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Dalit-youth-killed-for-loving-upper-caste-girl/articleshow/10345196.cms

TNN | Oct 13, 2011, 11.13PM IST

KANPUR: In a case of 'honour' killing, a dalit youth was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by the family members of his beloved belonging to an upper caste in Ghatampur.

The body of Vijay Kumar (20), son of Ram Dayal Sankhwar, a resident of Katheta in Ghatampur, missing since Wednesday afternoon, was found hanging from a 'neem' tree under highly mysterious circumstances on the outskirts of the locality the same evening.

After noticing injury marks on Vijay's body, his family members suspected foul play and informed the police. The police initially tried to hush up the issue.

However, the kin met senior officials, including SP (rural) AK Pandey, after the local police allegedly appeared to be supporting the upper caste girl's family.

Later, a case was registered under Sections 302, 506 of Indian Penal Code and 3 (2) 5 SC/ST

Act against the girl's father and four others.The body was sent for post mortem examination.
Ramesh and four others residents of the same village were named as accused. They managed to flee after the police teams raided there houses.

According to the police, the boy was in love with a physically challenged girl, a teacher in a private school situated in the village. Ramesh and his family members caught Vijay Kumar on Wednesday afternoon, when he had gone out of his house to meet the girl. They killed him and hanged his body from a 'neem' tree to give it a colour of suicide.

The assailants had brutally assaulted Vijay before strangulating him.

"Ramesh had developed enmity with us as my son was in love with his daughter. That man's pride was hurt and he decided to eliminate Vijay," said Ram Dayal Sankhwar.
Police investigation revealed that Ramesh often used to threaten Vijay with dire consequences.

"Many villagers told us that the pride of the girl's family members was hurt when they came to know about her relationship with a dalit youth. The accused had threatened Vijay and his family members on Wednesday morning prior to the recovery of body," a police official said.

Indian Express

Day not far when Cong will appoint a Dalit PM: Shastri

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Day-not-far-when-Cong-will-appoint-a-Dalit-PM--Shastri/860814/

Mon Oct 17 2011, 03:07 hrs New Delhi:

Senior Congress leader and AICC's newly created Hindi department chairman Anil Shastri on Sunday said the "day is not far" when the Congress will appoint a Dalit Prime Minister. His remarks came in the backdrop of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's statement last week that the ruling party at the Centre could install either Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar or Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde as PM for a brief period to woo Dalits in UP Assembly elections.

"Indiraji wanted Girdhari Lal, a Dalit, as CM, UP but failed. She even tried making Jagjivan Ram Rashtrapati but was opposed & party split... Congress has made 4 CMs in different states in past. Day is not far when it will give a Dalit PM, not for votes but for Dalit empowerment. Yes, Congress will do it someday which has more capable Dalit leaders than Mayawati. Her concern therefore is justified. Mayawati can't be the only Dalit aspiring to be PM. There are many more qualified & capable leaders in Congress," Anil Shastri tweeted.

The Times Of India

CPM claims non-dalits in Keeripatti Social boycott alleged in Keeripatti threatening villagers

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/CPM-claims-non-dalits-in-Keeripatti-Social-boycott-alleged-in-Keeripatti-threatening-villagers/articleshow/10383288.cms

M T Saju, TNN | Oct 17, 2011, 05.35AM IST

MADURAI: A day after the campaigning for the local body elections ended, local CPM leaders have alleged that a fresh village committee (oorkoottam) that was called on Friday threatened the villagers in Keeripatti not to cast their votes to anyone other than Mookakalai, the dalit dummy of the non-dalits. in Keeripatti.

"The meeting was called by six senior non-dalit members in the village on Friday. They threatened the villagers of ostracism if they vote for anyone other than Mookakalai," said Tha Chellakannu, CPM district leader in Usilampatti.

Keeripatti, Pappapatti and Nattarmangalam are the three reserved panchayats in the

Madurai district. "Among the three panchayts, only Keeripatti is having problems because of

the Thevar community domination is high in the village. They don't want others to take control. So they try their level best to defeat the dalit candidate Baluchamy," he said. Although a complaint was filed in this regard, no action has been taken so far.

"Two policemen came, visited the spot and left. In fact, we informed the police well in advance when the meeting was going to be called. But they came late and claimed that nothing of that sort happened," said Chellakannu.

However, talking to the TOI, Madurai Rural SP Asra Garg said the police had already sent additional forces to the sensitive villages where election to the local bodies are to be held on October 17.

"Whenever we received any complaint from the people in Keeripatti, we have taken action. And the same will continue to make the election a democratic exercise. We have already sent special forces to Keeripatti to make sure no untoward incident happens tomorrow (Monday)," he said.

Garg also added that all necessary steps have been taken to make people cast their votes freely and fearlessly. There are 109 dalit families and 570 non-dalit families in Keeripatti. The total number of voters is 1150 among which the majority are non-dalits.

The Times Of India

Danam wields lathi against protester

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Danam-wields-lathi-against-protester/articleshow/10383832.cms

TNN | Oct 17, 2011, 06.58AM IST

HYDERABAD: Police on Sunday slapped a case under the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against labour minister Danam Nagender for assaulting and abusing a private employee, who hurled eggs on his vehicle, at Addagutta in Secunderabad on Sunday.

The incident occurred while Danam Nagender was going to attend the inauguration function of a hospital at Addagutta on Sunday morning.

When his convoy was about to reach the venue, two persons travelling on a two-wheeler overtook the minister's convoy and one of them hurled eggs on Danam Nagender's vehicle.

However, while attempting to escape into one of the alleys, the miscreants, identified as Sravan Kumar, and Narasimha Yadav of West Marredpally, lost control and fell on the road.

Narasimha managed to flee from the spot, however, Danam Nagender's supporters surrounded Sravan and started bashing him up. The minister also joined the group and hit Sravan with a lathi borrowed from one of the police constables present there.

Soon, police intervened and rescued Sravan from the mob. The bruised man was then shifted to a nearby hospital.

Later in the evening, Sravan Kumar accompanied by Telangana advocates went to the Tukaramgate police station and lodged a complaint against Danam Nagender, National Students Union of India (NSUI) state president Veeravallabh and 20 of their supporters for abusing him, referring to his caste and then physically assaulting him.

Based on the complaint lodged by Sravan Kumar, police booked cases under Sections 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt with weapons) and Section 3 (1) (10) of the SC & ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. As part of the probe, police started gathering photo and video footage of the incident.

The Hindu

Minimum wages likely for MGNREGA workers

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2543672.ece

K. Balchand

Sequel to Karnataka High Court upholding supremacy of Minimum Wages Act

The Centre is likely to pay minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in compliance with the recent Karnataka High Court ruling upholding the supremacy of the Minimum Wages Act (MWA) over the MGNREGA.

Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has taken a decision favouring payment of minimum wages for agricultural workers as notified by the States as MGNREGA wages. He told The Hindu on Sunday that he was intent on finding a political and administrative solution to the problem rather than go on appeal against the court ruling.

Mr. Ramesh said the NREGA wages should not be lower than the minimum wages as was the case in six States currently and expressed confidence about winning over the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister this time round to accept the proposal that the National Advisory Council (NAC) under Sonia Gandhi had recommended in November 2010.

The Prime Minister had turned down Ms. Gandhi's proposal but increased NREGA wages in January by linking it to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labour thereby delinking NREGA wage rate from agricultural minimum wage.

The Karnataka High Court ruled that Section 6 (1) of the NREGA could not be invoked to fix wage rate lower than what was prescribed under the MWA, 1948 and quashed the government notification on wage rate of January 2009 and ordered payment of arrears to the workers in Karnataka.

Special piece of law

Stressing that the MWA was a special piece of legislation and had to take precedence over the NREGA, which it regarded as a general legislation, the court ruled that payment of wages lower than the minimum wages would violate Articles 14 (equality) and 23 (prevention of forced labour) of the Constitution.

Mr. Ramesh said the payment of arrears was "not appealing" to him as the additional financial burden worked to Rs. 1,800 crore for the two years — 2009-10 and 2010-11 — in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Mizoram. He said he would find a political solution to the entire problem in consultation with the NAC.

Arbitrary increase

While allowing minimum wages for NREGA workers, Mr. Ramesh proposed that it be added to Part II of the Schedule of the MWA for fixation and revision of minimum wages in the Central sphere to safeguard against any arbitrary increase in minimum wages by the States as the nature of work was not limited to agriculture but also covered watershed development, irrigation, civil work, and road construction.

As per his proposal, the wages would be revised annually indexed to inflation and a full revision would be effected every five years in consultation with the States.

The Hindu

Valmiki Bhavans to be opened

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/karnataka/article2529128.ece

Special Correspondent

Chairman of the Hyderabad Karnataka Area Development Board Amarnath Patil on Tuesday said the State Government had decided to establish Maharishi Valmiki Bhavans in all district headquarters, along with a full-fledged auditorium in the name of the sage Valmiki, who penned the Ramayana.

Speaking after inaugurating the sage's birth anniversary at the S.M. Pandit Rangamandira, Mr. Patil said the Government had already released Rs. 1 crore to build the Maharishi Valmiki Bhavan here.

--
.Arun Khote
On behalf of
Dalits Media Watch Team
(An initiative of "Peoples Media Advocacy & Resource Centre-PMARC")