While holding the district administration directly responsible for caste clashes in Talhan, Chairman of National Commission for SC/ST Bijay Sonkar Shastri today said, in a missive to the PM, that he would make a case against some district officials for their ‘‘dubious’’ role during the episode.Shastri, addressing mediapersons, after visiting Talhan and meeting leaders of both Jat and Dalit communities, said he would send the report of his visit to Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee and President Abdul Kalam.Blaming the district administration and the government for the clashes, he alleged that the agreement between both the communities and the administration had only been partially implemented as around 20 persons, arrested for the violence, are yet to be released.Flaying the government’s decision to appoint an SDM-level official to inquire into the incident, Shastri said a senior officer should be entrusted with the enquiry. He also demanded a relief of Rs 10 lakh for Vijay Kumar Kala’s family, who was killed in the Boota Mandi firing incident, as against the Rs 5 lakh announced by the government. He further demanded Rs 25,000 for every injured and Rs 50,000 for seriously injured as against the grant of Rs 10,000 announced.Shastri said his office, which had been regularly monitoring the incident, had found that suggestions given by the Commission to senior level officials in Punjab, including the Chief Secretary, had been ignored.He added that owing to these incidents, the British government had stopped the grant it used to send for the welfare of Dalits.
