Atrocities on Muslims, Dalits maximum in UP: Panels

Two separate panels dubbed Uttar Pradesh as having the 'worst track record' insofar as atrocities on Dalits & Muslims are concerned.

In a virtual snub to the Mayawati government, two separate panels on Thursday dubbed Uttar Pradesh as having the “worst track record” insofar as atrocities on Dalits and Muslims are concerned.

While National Commission for Scheduled Castes chairman Buta Singh said Uttar Pradesh “continues to be at the top in terms of the number of cases of atrocities against Dalits reported in states across the country”.

And National Commission for Minorities Chairman Mohammad Shafi Qureshi said the state “tops in discrimination and atrocities on Muslims”.

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Talking to media in Allahabad, Singh said: “The latest data available with us is for 2006 when the state recorded a whopping 52,827 such cases.”

Meanwhile, Mayawati has advised Singh not to “misuse the constitutional body for political purposes”.

“The commission is making useless visits to the state as stern action has already been taken in the matters being taken up by it in the state. By doing this, the Commission is ignoring incidents that took place in other states and needed its attention,” Mayawati said in a statement issued in Lucknow.

Singh was leading a three-member delegation which visited Kaanti, a remote Dalit-dominated village in the district that has been in the grip of tension for the past one week over the controversial purchase of a piece of land by a retired police personnel.

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On the other hand, Qureshi told media in Lucknow that at least 60 per cent of complaints of discrimination and atrocities on Muslims are from alone Uttar Pradesh.

He said immediate steps were needed to restore the faith of Muslims in the system as they have lost faith in committees and commissions constituted for them.