Ensure justice, protection to Dalits: CPI

Chittoor: Protesting against the unabated attacks against the STs and Dalits in the state, the CPI and its affiliated union members staged dharna in front of the Collectorate on Monday. The CPM, TDP and Congress parties have extended their support for the agitation.

Addressing the dharna programme, CPI state executive member S Nagarajan came down heavily against attacks on Dalits in the state particularly in East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Anantapur and Chittoor districts at the behest of ruling YSRCP leaders.

He said that the Dalits in the state were feeling insecured as the police failed to protect the victims from the assault of upper castes. Hence, the CPI has come forward to lead an indefinite agitation until the rights of Dalits are safe guarded, he cautioned.

He recalled that YSRCP won the power with the votes of Dalits alone and maintained that Dalit Ministers, MPs and MLAs were seemed to be quite silent to protect the Dalits from the repeated attacks of their followers. District CPM secretary C Venkaiah criticised that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has failed to keep up his promise particularly in respect of Dalit security.

He demanded the government to arrest all the offenders, who assaulted the Dalits unconditionally. Several Dalit union leaders such as Raja, Mani, Raghu, Mohan Raj, Vijayagouri, Devayani and others spoke. The leaders then presented a memorandum to Joint Collector V R Chandramouli seeking needful action against the accused.