The members of Dalit community came down heavily against the city police commissionerate for cancelling the monthly Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe grievance meet which was scheduled to be held on Sunday, without giving prior intimation.
A verbal tiff took place between the Dalits who had assembled at Commissionerate premises and the police officers for the cancellation of the meeting. Dalit Sangharsh Samiti President S P Anand alleged that the police have not solved several cases of Dalits. “The Commissionerate has not organised the meeting as they have not followed up the issues that were discussed in the previous meeting. You can not organise the meeting when ever you wish, but it should be held on last Sunday of every month,” he said.
Responding to their allegation, ACP T R Jagannath said the meeting was cancelled as the commissionerate has decided to hold station-level meetings in Dalit colonies. Dalita Hakkugala Horata Samiti Secretary Lingappa Nanthoor said that supplementing the monthly grievance meet with the colony meetings was not justifiable.
“Let the colony meeting be organised separately and the monthly grievance meet should be held as usual.” He also questioned the police for not fulfilling the assurances made in the last meeting. “We were promised that we would be informed about the follow up of all the cases within 15 days of the last meeting. It has been a month now but we have not been informed about the proceedings. You have cancelled the meeting now and how do we know the status of the cases,” he questioned.
Though ACP and Pandeshwar Inspector K Tilakchandra tried to convince the group, the community leaders strongly urged that the meeting should be held on the same day. At one point, ACP warned of arresting the crowd, for which the community leaders said they would not mind if they are arrested.
Later, the Dalit leaders agreed to meet the DCP and discuss the matter with him. In the meeting, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Mutthuraya decided to hold the monthly grievance meet on April 1.