DH News Service

BANGALORE:Karnataka State Finance Commission Chairman and senior Congress leader T N Narasimha Murthy on Friday urged President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to amend the Constitution to provide reservation to Dalits in the Rajya Sabha besides demanding that similar reservation system should be implemented in the upper house of the state legislature also.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Narasimha Murthy pointed out that 124 of the total 540 seats in Lok Sabha had been reserved and suggested that even the reservation in Rajya Sabha should be on these lines.

The present reservation being offered in the Rajya Sabha is not mandatory, he noted. Mr Murthy regretted that the recommendations of the National SC/ST Commission were being ignored and exhorted the Centre to implement the recommendations of the Commission, which has been constituted for the welfare of the Dalits. He suggested that a sitting judge of the Supreme Court should be apponted chairman of the above Commission and all statutory powers should be given to the Commission. He also appealed to AICC President Sonia Gandhi and other leaders of the Congress party to consider the issue seriously.

He also alleged that the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement had failed to prevent atrocities and harassment to Dalits and urged Home Minister Mallikarjun Kharge to either strenghen the directorate or abolish it. He also demanded that the voting rights of miscreants who desecrate the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr B R Ambedkar, should be cancelled.