The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said SC and BC Welfare minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot should resign on moral grounds for failing to protect the rights of a scheduled caste girl of his constituency who as well as her family were being subject to oppression.In a statement here, SAD spokesman Pawan Kumar Teenu said it was shocking that the dalit girl – Veerpal Kaur, who was beaten up for refusing to help three boys to cheat in an examination in November last year, had been unable to get justice till now.The Akali spokesman said it had also come to light that the SC BC Welfare minister was helping school clerk Jasveer Singh and Principal Jagjit Singh Bhatia, who had teamed up with the three boys, to harass and manhandle Veerpal. Even Veerpal’s family is being harassed but their complaints are also falling on deaf ears. “This is least expected from a minister who is himself a dalit. Dharamsot must own moral responsibility for failing to do his constitutional duty and resign immediately on moral grounds. If he does not do this we will start a mass movement against him and force him to put in his papers”, Teenu added.
The SAD leader said this was not the first time that Dharamsot had failed to fulfill his duties as a minister. He said earlier the minister had failed to distribute ‘shagun’ to 43,000 SC and BC brides who were awaiting the same since the last ten months. He said the minister had also failed to distribute release post matric scholarship to dalit students despite the fact that the Congress government received Rs 117 crore from the centre under this scheme. “Thousands of dalit students were not able to take admission while many others were stopped from sitting for examinations as their fee had not been paid to their respective institutions by the government.Teenu said the dalit and backward classes should not suffer due to the inability of Dharamsot to run his department efficiently. He said the dalit community had lost faith in his ability to head the SC and BC Welfare ministry and that he should quit immediately. EOM