At a review meeting with MLAs and officials among others, the Commission discussed various issues pertaining to welfare of SCs and was unhappy with the government for its delay to clear the backlog of appointments, not giving reservation benefit in promotions and not providing 25 per cent quota in jobs in proportion to their population.
Commission Chairman P L Punia, MP, later told reporters that complaints of atrocities on SCs and untouchability continued to pour in. Though the government has denied the allegations of untouchability in some places, ban into entry of SCs into temples and FIR not being registered in cases pertaining atrocities on SCs, "we want the matter to be probed and wish that the allegations were proved wrong."
He said SCs accounted for 25 per cent of the population in Himachal Pradesh but the reservation was only 15 per cent and even in that there was a huge backlog of 21,000 posts.
Punia said the state government has earmarked 25 per cent of the budget for SCs under Scheduled Caste Component Plan but in actual practice this amount was not being spent exclusively on welfare of SCs and utilised for other purposes.
He said the Commission also took notice of contractual appointments circumventing the provisions of reservation and outsourcing of jobs and added, "We have clearly told the government to make regular appointments only and clear the backlog."
Punia said that the Commission also met eight MLAs who too raised the issues of atrocities on SCs and non-implementation of reservation quota and barring SCs from entering temples at some places.