Jan 31, DHNS: Dalit leaders participating in the SC/ST grievances redress meeting convened by Superintendent of Police on Sunday spoke elaborately on various instances of police atrocities on Dalits.

Many Dalit leaders said that police pose more threat to them than the people of upper caste as very often when they go to the police with problems, the police rebuke them instead of taking action against the culprits. They said that Dakshina Kannada police have been ‘saffronised.’ Demanding action against certain police officials they said that a workshop on human relations must be held for policemen in the district.

One of the Dalit leaders said that groups of hooligans keep teasing women in a particular Dalit colony in Ullal area. When he brought the issue to the notice of the Ullal Sub Inspector Nagaraj, the SI used unparliamentary words and threatened to arrest him if he continued to complain against the group of hooligans.

Mangalore University Professor Umeshchandra shared his experience of police misbehaving with him when he had sought help following volatile situation prevailing in the University campus. Dalit Sangharsha Samiti Leader S P Anand said that when their organisation tried to support Umeshchandra, they too had faced similar problems.

Anand demanded justice for Umeshchandra, police action with regard to suspicious death of Rajappa, the Dalit who was working in farm of former minister B Nagaraj Shetty and compensation to the family of Aithappa, who died in firing by Andhra Police in Dharmasthala.

Participants complained that grievances meets are not being held in the police stations regularly. Addressing the meet, Superintendent of Police Dr A Subramanyeshwar Rao said that all police stations must compulsorily hold meetings and report the proceedings of the same. He said that out of 27 police stations only one has sent the proceedings.

"Training and sensitisation pro-grammes will be held for the police. Our aim is that policemen should understand the problems of the Dalits. From next meet onwards SIs will be asked to attend the meeting," he said. He added that action against Sub Inspectors, who behaved rudely with Dalits, cannot be taken in a day or two because there is a system and procedure to be followed.