The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has noted that atrocities on SC people in Assam are nominal as compared to other parts of the country where such incidents have increased.
"We visited Assam for two days from yesterday and had meetings with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, government officials and others. We found that atrocity on Scheduled Caste people is very nominal in Assam", NCSC member Raju Parmar said today.
"The low level of atrocity incidence is good comparing to other parts of the country where it has gone up," Parmar said here.
Speaking about the outcome of the meetings regarding welfare of the SCs which constitute 7.2 per cent of state population, he said SC representation in government sector was almost at par with SC population percentage except Group A (Class 1 officers) posts where the required percentage was short of 1.35 per cent.
"The number of public health centres in the SC localities is on higher side. Figures obtained from the documents of the state government shows that total number of existing PHCs is 986 and sub-centres 4609 as on 2013", he said.
Though the state's overall literacy compared to the national level is good, the NCSC noted with concern the literacy rate among SCs was less at 5.44 per cent (male 5.65 per cent and female 5.24 per cent) than overall education percentage.
The Commission also found that allocations under the Scheduled Caste Special Component Plan vis-avis expenditure is very low at 1.8 per cent and not in commensurate with the 7.2 per cent SC population in the state.
Parmar said the state government's attention was also drawn to the low employment of SCs in the MNREGA during the last three years.
Besides, funds under the Indira Awas Yojana was reduced when beneficiaries during 2013-14 increased and 36 of the 46 hostels were non-functional, he said.
The 8 per cent rate of interest charged under the Janata Housing subsidy scheme was asked to be pegged down to 3 to 4 per cent as done in other states, he said, adding, the state government was advised to conduct State Level Vigilance and Monitoring Committee meetings regularly.
As the country is celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the state government was requested to install a statue of the principal architect of the Constitution in Guwahati and district headquarters to commemorate the occasion, Parmar said.
