Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mr. Virbhadra Singh said that stringent measures would be taken against those found guilty of racial discrimination and showing indifferent attitude towards Children of low castes particularly in schools by differentiating them with others. Presiding over the 11th annual convention of Koli Kalyan Board in Kullu today, Chief Minister Shri Virbhadra Singh said that anyone found indulging in the crime and indifference towards such children would loose his job immediately.
This applies to all Government schools and other institutions of learning, he said. All children will sit, study and eat together and anyone found discriminating the children on basis of caste, color, region or religion would be fired from the job, said Mr. Singh. Chief Minister issued directions to all the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that any such incident does not take place in their respective districts. He said that if anyone reports any such incident, strict action would be taken against the defaulters by the government apart from the punishment under law.
He said that the Government was implementing many schemes for welfare of poor and had constituted various welfare boards for different communities. Gone are the days when the people use to draw a line parallel between higher and lower castes, he said adding that the people belonging to low caste were not allowed to enter the religious places and participate in religious ceremonies of upper caste people. Today the scenario was quite different. The temples were open to all in the State. People of any region and religion can pay their obeisance at any temple owned and controlled by the government, he said.
There are famous ‘Shakti Peeths’ in Himachal and people from every nook and corner of the country come to pay obeisance here. “We do not discriminate and divide, but believe in taking everyone along. We do not believe in caste-ism and the Government was working equally for welfare of all”, he said. It takes time to change the thinking which dominated our society in past and can only be changed through education and sociology-economic development of the society, which can be achieved through education only said the Chief Minister.
Education is key to wisdom and development of an individual. Undoubtedly, time will come when the future generations will not believe in racial difference, said Mr. Singh. Time will come when children will be seen convincing their grandparents about narrowing, rather eliminating the concept of caste-ism completely, he said. Mr. Singh said that the Koli samaj should provide a suitable piece of land for construction of Ambedkar Bhawan in Kullu and the government would provide adequate assistance. He assured to consider the other demands sympathetically.
Later, Chief Minister inaugurated Darka bridge on the Kullu-Karon road in Lug Valley constructed with an outlay of Rs. 2.20 crore and Primary Health Centre completed with an outlay of Rs 1.04 crore at Bhutti. Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr. (Col) Dhani Ram Shandil proposed vote of thanks. He said that 56 sub castes of Koli samaj had been incorporated in the list of Scheduled castes. He said that reservation was being provided in direct recruitment to scheduled caste community and detailed about various schemes being implemented for welfare of SC/ST.
