Chhattisgarh Govt. rubbishes reports of rise in crime against Dalits

Raipur, July 25 (ANI): Rubbishing recent reports suggesting that crime against Dalits in the state was on the rise, the Chhattisgarh Government while quoting figures issued by the National Crime Records Bureau stated that offences against the Schedule Castes was 'under control'. Chhattisgarh Home Minister Ram Sewak Paikra in a statement said that there were 253 cases of crime against Dalits in 2011, 262 cases in 2012 and 242 cases in 2013 respectively as per the National Crime Records Bureau data. Paikra said the National Crime Records Bureau changed its format of collecting data from 2014 onwards in which even those crimes, which were not under the ST/SC Act, were included. "In 2014, the cases registered under the Schedule Caste (SC) laws were 280 while normal crime against ST/SCs was 674. Apart from these, there are 33 cases in which ST/SC person is not a victim, but the perpetrator. In 2015, the crime against SCs is just 218," the statement said. The statement said that 83 such cases have been registered in the first six months of 2016, adding it clearly indicated that crime against Dalits was decreasing in the state. Earlier, the data released by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes showed that crimes against Dalits in Gujarat went up from 27.7 percent in 2014 to 163.3 percent in 2015 while in Chhattisgarh it went up from 32.6 percent in 2014 to 91.9 percent in 2015. According to reports, the data showed that such crimes increased by almost 40 percent across the country between 2011 and 2014, and that Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan had the highest crime rate against the scheduled castes in 2015. (ANI)