Will take up matter with Khattar, says Athawale

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, January 19

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said today that he would take up the demand of rehabilitation of Dalit victims of Mirchpur with the state government.

Around 120 Dalit families migrated from the village about six years ago and living in a farmhouse of Ved Pal Tanwar near Hisar.

After interacting with the families, the Union minister said that the state government would ensure safety and security of the families who want to return to their native place. “If they don’t want to return home, the state government should make arrangements for their rehabilitation. I would also meet Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and take up the issue in Delhi next week,” he said, while urging these families to look for a suitable piece of land for their rehabilitation.

The Dalits, however, said that they still feared backlash from the upper caste Jat community in the village and thus did not want to return to their village.

Gulab Singh, 80, said that the farmhouse had become their home, but they were concerned about the future of youngsters who need house, jobs and education.

The Union minister said that it was the duty of the district administration to ensure their security and arrangements for the education to their children.

On April 21, 2010, a group of upper caste youths torched nearly a dozen houses of the Dalits in which 17-year-old polio-stricken girl Suman and her aged father Tara Chand were charred to death.