BOGUS CASTE
CERTIFICATES TO AVAIL RESERVATIONS
New Delhi, 13 February 2006
New Delhi, February 14 (INFA): A large number
of ineligible groups and individuals are increasingly getting bogus community
certificate with a view to getting the benefit of reservations in educational
institutions and Government and public sector employment, it is officially
stated.
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has been
getting a large number of representations with regard to people having got
admissions or appointments based on bogus caste certificates.
Article 338 (5) of the Constitution vests in the Commission
the responsibility “to enquire into specific complaints with respect to the
deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes”.
It has been observed that the admissions wrongly gained or
appointment wrongly obtained on the basis of bogus social status certificates
necessarily has the effect of depriving the genuine Scheduled Castes candidates
of the benefits conferred on them by the Constitution.
Based on these provisions and principles, the Commission has
taken up enquiries in thousands of cases of complaints of false caste
certificates, either directly or through its State Offices or the concerned
agencies of the State Government.
The Commission has also asked the Centre to set up a caste
verification committee on the lines one in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Maharashtra and Punjab to prevent the issue of
false caste certificates in the remaining States.
During 2005 the Commission visited various State Governments
and UT Administrations and held detailed review meetings with the Chief
Secretaries, and other senior officers in order to evaluate the implementation
of development programmes for Scheduled Castes, protective legislations,
reservation policy in appointments/promotions and for admission to educational
/ professional courses and other related matters.
The Commission also visited a large number of districts
throughout the country to evaluate the development and other programmes meant
for Scheduled Castes. It also reviewed
the working of service safeguards available to the SCs with a number of PSUs,
financial institutions and banks, universities and other public funded
institutions/organizations.
Detailed reviews of Central Ministries Departments dealing
with implementations of development programme for Scheduled Castes have also
been undertaken by the Commission.
The Government of India passed PCR Act, 1955 and SC and ST
(POA) Act, 1989, to protect the SCs and STs against the practice of
untouchability and against atrocities and exploitation by other
communities. The practice of
untouchability still continues in many overt and covert forms, though its
severity has considerably been reduced and the SCs have started asserting their
constitutional and legal rights against this social evil. ---INFA
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