Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Dec 1: At the meeting organized here on Tuesday November 30 to enable the dalits to air their grievances, the dalits mainly raked up the issue of the insult allegedly meted out to them in a play presented at ‘Alvas Nudisiri’ event, and demanded for demolishing a compound wall built illegally on the land exempted by the deputy commissioner, besides issuance of title deeds for the houses they reside in.

At the meeting, the participants alleged that a person named Sanjeeva had encroached upon a government land at survey No. 176/1 of Derebail in the city, and built a compound wall there. They demanded for the immediate demolition of this compound wall. They demanded for demarcation of land and issuance of title deeds to Cheluvaraj, Kasiraj and Chennamma, who have been living in government land at Shivanagar in Moodushedde village since the last three decades. They demanded for the withdrawal of police complaints registered by the the taluk tahsildar against these residents in Kavoor police station, alleging that they had illegally encroached upon government land. They claimed that a number of people belonging to higher castes had encroached upon government lands all over the taluk, and asked for driving away these people and allotment of house sites in these lands to the dalits. The other demand they put up was to build ‘Ambedkar Bhavan’ in the city to enable the dalits to hold their programmes.

The dalit leaders demanded strict legal action against M Mohan Alva and theatre personality, Jeevanram Sullia, for what they termed as an insult heaped on the dalits in the ‘Alvas Nudisiri’ event presented recently. They also sought for posting of additional employees to the social welfare department office and hostels to enable the people to get their caste certificates quickly, to run the hostels properly, as also to disburse scholarships to students promptly.