ANANTAPUR: A state-wide agitation will be launched for the protection of the rights of Dalits under the aegis of the Kula Vivakshatha Vyathireka Porata Committee (Struggle Committee Against Caste Discrimination) (KVVPC) from April 14 coinciding with the 111th birthday of the Father of the Constitution Dr B R Ambedkar, according to the committee’s district unit secretary H Venkatesh.

Speaking to mediapersons at the local Press Club today, Venkatesh alleged that the two-glass system and treating the Dalits as the low-caste people is still in vogue at several villages in the district.

He said both the Central and State Governments failed to abolish the caste-discrimination in the country even after 50 years of Independence. While the two-glass system was being practised at Krishnapadu in Peddavaduguru mandal, several restrictions were imposed on the Dalits by the upper caste people at Upparapalli and Talapur villages, five km away from the district headquarters.

The attack on five Dalit students in the local Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University college recently vindicates how vulnerable the Dalits were for the attacks by the upper castes in the country, he said.

He alleged that the Dalits of Malasamudram in Kottacheruvu mandal were boycotted from the village for refusing to remove a body from the village.

Stating that the formation of Swarnandhra Pradesh was impossible without eliminating the social evil of caste-discrimination, Venkatesh accused the Government of depriving the Dalits of their reservations in jobs and education in the name of privatisation.

KVVPC leaders G V Ramana and Nallappa were present.

NELLORE: Dalit Samrakshana Samithi state convener G Sivaji, in a statement here today, called upon the people to observe the 111th birthday of B R Ambedkar on April 14 as the day of struggle against caste discrimination.

Expressing concern over the spate of suicides by handloom workers, he demanded the government to implement the employment schemes for them to save them from starvation and committing suicide.