Kundal demands PSA against people who denied drinking water to SC community

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Mar 1: At a time when India is celebrating its democracy and the values of giving equal rights to the members of Scheduled Castes (SC)s, Rajputs in a Kathua village are denying drinking water to the community members living in the village.

This issue was today raised by MLC B K Kundal to call attention of the government towards an incident which happened in village Rasuh Hatli on January, 2012.

Kundal demanded that case under Public Safety Act (PSA) should be lodged against the people involved.

On January, 20, a written report was produced by the members of the schedule caste community of village Rasoo, tehsil and district Kathua through Sarpanch Panchyat Halqa Hatli to the effect that on the same day when the members of schedule caste community of their village has proceeded to fetch water from the another well, they were restrained by Major Singh, s/o Chatter Singh, Vijay Singh s/o Sai Singh, Devi Rani w/o Major Singh, Mangy s/o Madan Singh, Puro w/o Mehar Singh and Nisha d/o Chatter Singh, all residents of Rasoo tehsil Kathua which let to scuffle and exchange of unparliamentarily languages.

A case FIR No. 68/2012 u/s 341/506 RPC, 3/7 Protection of Civil Rights Act was registered at Police Station Lakhanpur on 20-01-2012. SHO concerned alongwith Police party rushed to the spot and controlled the situation.

All the accused persons were arrested and stand bailed out. The investigation of the case is in progress. Presently both the communities are drawing water from the same well.

Kundal said that such events are blot on the face of democracy and should be condemned by all the people. He demanded strict action against the people who are denying the poor members of the SC community the right to use the water of the well.

Sources said there were three separate wells in Rasooh village where the community had divided their wells on caste basis. This practice is going on for the last many decades. For the last several weeks, the well water of SC community has been found unfit and it also required immediate cleanliness and repair. Some Dalit families approached other two wells to fetch drinking water, but they were denied access to the wells by the members of the upper castes.

There had been several heated exchanges and even clashes in the village over water issue in last two weeks.

The matter came to the notice of Administration and Tehsildar Settlement went to the village and tried to pacify the people and asked them to allow SC community members to fetch water from the water source as it was crime in the eyes of law to deny water and promote castism. There after he left the village.