Assembly panel wants DRO booked under SC/ST Act

Ongole: The chairman of Assembly Committee on Welfare of SCs, Tenali Sravan Kumar ordered the authorities to book a case under SC/ST Atrocities Act on the District Revenue Officer Dr N Prabhakar Reddy in Ongole on Wednesday. The committee received complaints against the DRO from dalit leaders that he was behaving like a feudalist against the dalits and stopping the relief to the victims.

The Dalita Hakkuka Porata Samiti district leader, Neelam Nagendra Rao and other leaders met Sravan Kumar and other members of the committee. They complained that the DRO, Prabhakar Reddy was indefinitely delaying the relief files under SC/ST Atrocity Act by making queries and stopped the promotions of dalit attenders. 

They said that though there was e-Office system in Prakasam district Collectorate, the DRO was asking for physical file if any benefits were due for dalits. They complained that the DRO was obstructing the files for purchase of land for graveyards for dalit community by not implementing GO 1235.

Based on the complaints from the dalit leaders, Sravan Kumar ordered the authorities to register a case against the DRO under the SC/ST Atrocities Act and initiate action on him. He said that the government should appoint the Collector from SCs and STs to the district where the population of SC and STs was more in number.