March against dilution on May 18

Tirupati: A ‘millennium march (Chalo Amaravati)’ will be organised to press the Centre bring an ordinance to reverse the Supreme Court order diluting the SC, ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act, in Amaravati on May 18.

Disclosing this at a meeting here on Monday, former Congress MP G V Harsha Kumar said that all the 130 Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe MPs and the MLAs from these two communities in Andhra Pradesh were invited to participate in the massive rally to be attended by Dalits from all the 13 districts in the State.

Harsha Kumar said as a build up to the ‘millennium march,’ a bus yatra was taken up by him with the support of district Dalit leaders. The yatra began in Srikakulam on April 25 reached Tirupati on Monday and will conclude in Kurnool on May 1st after covering all the 13 districts in the state.

Senior Congress leader Dr Chinta Mohan, who was present along with local leaders, declared that they will not rest till the Centre bring an ordinance to restore status quo with regard to the SC, ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act to safeguard the interests of 50 crore people of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the country.

He called on the members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to unite setting aside their party affiliations to build up a strong public movement to force Centre to take required steps immediately to reverse the dilution of SC, ST Act.