Dead Dalit girl deprived of resting place in Uttar Pradesh village

Mangalore Today News Network

Lucknow, January 13, 2015: If the affluent people in an Uttar Pradesh village have their way, the Dalits wouldn’t have a cremation ground for themselves. Interestingly, state SC/ST Commission vice-chairman Mukesh Siddharth was present in Baghpat district when the drama was unfolding.

Ashu, a 17-year-old Dalit girl of Sinauli village in the district, was deprived of resting in peace in a village cremation ground on Sunday.

Her relatives kept requesting the village musclemen for 10 hours to let them use the ground in Sinauli. However, the grabbers of the ground declared that the place has been reserved for only non-Scheduled Castes.
 
Initially, the police administration did not force the affluent people to let the Dalit family perform the last rites of their daughter allegedly because the high and mighty are followers of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP).

MLA’s advice

Later, the girl was cremated in another ground after Lokesh Dixit, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA of Baghpat reached when he learnt about the deadlock. He suggested the family members to do the cremation elsewhere instead of engaging in a verbal duel.

Pradeep Prasad, father of the deceased, said: "We didn’t know when they decided that only non-SCs would use the village cremation ground. There are two grounds in the village for this purpose-one has been encroached upon by a rich family and the other was grabbed by some goons owing allegiance to the ruling party. Obviously, we don’t have a place for our dead. The MLA suggested that we carry out the last rites on an unclaimed government land."

"We also staged a sit-in at the tehsil office for eight hours. But instead of helping us, the police and local administrative officers were siding with the affluent people in stopping us. Later, the administration agreed to conduct a probe and the police booked three people only after realising that it could turn into a caste-based issue."

Baghpat SDM Yashwardhan Srivastava said: "Cases have been registered against three people and an investigation has begun."

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday