DH News Service
GULBARGA, Mar 7

Stating that the Scheduled Castes/Tribes in the State had been wronged due to the Supreme Court judgement regarding reservations in promotions, members of the Karnataka Dalit Sangarsh Samithi (Sagar group) today staged a one-day dharna in front of the Deputy Commissioner`s office here.

Addressing the protestors, Ambarai Astagi of the KDSS stated that due to the December 1, 2000 decision, the State Government had decided to demote some SC/ ST enginers in Government service, who were earlier given promotions according to the roster system.

But, when the Government engineers belonging to general category had approached the Supreme Court against the State Government, the Supreme Court had stated that the promotions were illegal, he said.

Thereby, blaming the State Government for not representing the case properly before the Supreme Court, and not protecting the interests of the SC/ST engineers in the State, Mr Astagi demanded that the State Governemnt file a writ in the Supreme Court against its December 1, 2000, for failing to file a petition before judgement.

Claiming that the Supreme Court judgement was silent regarding demotions of those engineers who were already promoted, he demanded the Governemnt not to go ahead in demoting the already promoted employees, as already demanded by the general category engineers. He also stated that, since the percentage of SC/ ST in the State had already reached 25 per cent of the population, Mr Astagi demanded that the State Government should reserve 25 per cent of the posts for the SC/ST.

''The Government should reserve 25 per cent posts for the SC/ ST right from the group IV division upto the secretaries level,`` he added.

The other organisations which participated in today's dharna were, Karnataka Dalit Sangarsh Samithi (Sagar group), Dalit Kriya Samithi, Samatha Sainik Dal, Dalit Students` Federation, Karnataka Janandolana Organisation, Dalit Mahasabha Horata Samithi, Karnataka SC/ST Engineers` Welfare Association, and others.