The Times of India News Service

GULBARGA: The Karnataka Dalit Sangarsha Samithi (DSS), Secular, will stage a dharna on July 13 in front of the houses of all the ministers and legislators belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in protest against their failure to protect the interests of the dalits.

The Karnataka DSS convener D.G. Sagar said here on Saturday, 34 SC/ST legislators in the 224-member Karnataka assembly had failed to take up the causes of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes in Karnataka.

He told reporters, the Karnataka government had failed to fill the vacancies in the Karnataka government's SC, ST backlog posts but none of the legislators had raised the issue in the Assembly. He said there were about 25,000 vacancies in various government departments.

Sagar said, the Karnataka government had not constituted a state level SC/ST Commission. The legislators had remained silent on all these issues, he added.