4,311 cases pending in SC/ST police stations in Bihar

According to an official,records available at the state police headquarters,4311 cases lodged under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act,1989 are still pending with different SC/ST police stations up to May this year. The then National SC/ST Commission chairman Buta Singh,during his visit to Bihar on April 6,2010,had expressed serious concern over the growing number of cases of atrocities,noting that hardly two per cent of them reached logical conclusion.

While the number of cases of atrocities and repression were reported to be 3,723 in 2008,it rose to 5,129 in 2009 but then declined to 3,551 in 2010.

State Additional Director-General of Police (Crime Investigation Department) A S Nimbran said there are seven to eight such districts where 50 per cent of cases of atrocities are pending and these are normally the districts where very less number of cases are registered every year.

Nimbran confided that 200 cases of atrocities and repression being registered in Bihar every month.

There are 239,196,186,180,167,141 and 121 cases pending in the districts of Muzaffarpur,Saran,Begusarai,Motihari,Gaya,Patna and Gopalganj districts,respectively,he said.

According to the State SC/ST welfare minister Jitan Ram Manjhi,against the national average of 37 per cent,the conviction rate in SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act cases in Bihar has been very low at only 16 per cent.

“The state government is seriously considering a proposal to set up fast track courts for speedy trial of cases involving scheduled castes and scheduled tribes,” Manjhi said.

Director-General of Police Neelmani,however,claimed that there had been a significant decline in cases involving SC/ST from 5,000 two years ago to 2,500 at present.

The total population of SC in Bihar is estimated to be 1.20 crore,while ST population is hardly two lakh.

The state government has recently decided to open 30 more SC/ST police stations,in addition to the existing 10 to ensure speedy disposal. The total number of police stations in Bihar is 887 at present.

For the uplift of the dalit community,Bihar government had on September 20,2007 set up a Mahadalit Commission,whose recommendations led to inclusion of 22 castes in the category of Mahadalits and a special scheme was launched for them.

Community radio service has been launched in Bihar to spread awareness among Mahadalits,Manjhi said,adding the Mahadalits are unaware of welfare schemes in operation in Bihar,like MNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana.

The awareness campaign was the thrust of chief minister’s Jeevan Dristi Yojana,he said.

Bihar government will spend Rs 98 crore for development and honing of skills of Mahadalits in 2011-12 in addition to Rs 400 coupons to be given to each person of this section to purchase radios to listen to programmes,he said.

The earlier scheme of providing cash instead of coupons was withdrawn when it was found that beneficiaries were using the amount on other heads and some were using the public money to fund their drug habits,he said.