Telangana SC/ST Commission Report: 9,102 cases, only 32 convictions in three years
HYDERABAD: The Telangana State Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes(SC/ST) Commission reported that only 32 people were convicted in three years, even though 9,102 cases of offences against Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) were registered from 2023 to 2026. The Commission included these numbers in its three-year report released on Thursday.
The Commission, using government records, said these cases included 213 murders and 1,305 reports of sexual assault against women and girls. Additionally, during these three years, the Commission also received 5,867 petitions about land disputes, atrocities, service matters, and other grievances.
Review of departments and institutions
Telangana SC/ST Commission Chairman Bakki Venkatayya said the Commission reviewed the implementation of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, reservation rules, rosters, and backlog vacancies in departments such as SC/ST welfare, education, health, municipal administration, irrigation, and electricity. Furthermore, the Commission also reviewed public sector undertakings like Singareni, HMWSSB, and GHMC, and held review meetings at Osmania and NIMS hospitals.
The Commission said it held review meetings in all 33 districts, visiting some districts two or three times. It met District Collectors, Superintendents of Police, and Police Commissioners. In addition, the Commission also inspected residential schools and universities, including Osmania, Kakatiya, Telangana, and Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (Basara IIIT), and recommended appointment of a regular Vice-Chancellor for Basara IIIT.
Cases the Commission says it intervened in
The report lists several interventions. For example, in one case of alleged police excess, the Commission reviewed the case of Sunitha, a Dalit woman from Shadnagar who alleged police torture. As a result, a Circle Inspector and three other personnel were suspended. Similarly, the Commission also visited Lagacharla in Vikarabad district, where Adivasi women alleged assault by police during a land acquisition attempt, and met the victims at Sangareddy Jail.
In a case of custodial death, the family of Karla Rajesh, who died in police custody in Nalgonda district, got Rs 4 lakh as compensation. Likewise, in another case, Sriramula Srinivas, a Dalit Sub-Inspector in Bhadradri Kothagudem district, died by suicide after alleged humiliation by superiors. His family received Rs 8 lakh, employment for his wife, and a double-bedroom house in Warangal. Atrocity cases were registered against the officials concerned. In addition, in cases of sexual violence from Komaram Bheem Asifabad and Adilabad districts, families got Rs 8 lakh each, and in one instance, housing and employment.
For caste killing cases, the Commission visited the families of Mala Banti (Suryapet), Erra Rajashekhar (Shadnagar), and Salluri Mallesh (Jagtial), and facilitated Rs 8 lakh compensation and housing for each. Additionally, in a social boycott and temple entry case in Gauthoji Guda, Medak district, a public inquiry led to cases against over 30 people after a family was boycotted for refusing to play the dappu. Furthermore, in Siddipet and Narayanpet districts, Scheduled Caste persons were assisted to enter temples. In Narayanpet, a priest who was also a government employee was suspended. Finally, assigned lands worth crores in the Patancheru area, which had been illegally alienated, were restored to Dalit beneficiaries.
Housing for victims
The Commission said it urged the government to issue a special Government Order allocating double-bedroom houses to 1,000 atrocity victims within the Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Malkajgiri police commissionerate limits. So far, about 500 have been distributed. The Commission described this as unprecedented in the country and thanked Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Housing Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, and Ranga Reddy district in-charge minister Sridhar Babu.
The Commission also credited the Chief Minister with finally convening the High-Power Committee meeting, which is meant to be held twice a year under his chairmanship, after the matter was repeatedly raised.
Problems the commission flags
Despite these measures, the Commission’s own list of shortcomings is long. For instance, it said caste discrimination persists, including denial of temple entry and discrimination during festivals, and that inter-caste couples face honour killings and neglect of promised assistance. Additionally, it said police and revenue officials are often negligent, and that police are lax in registering cases. As a result, victims, it said, make rounds of government offices for years to get compensation.
The Commission also pointed to mounting fee arrears in schemes such as Best Available Schools and overseas education, delays in self-employment scheme funds, neglect of backlog vacancies, and the forced acquisition of SC/ST lands for projects. It welcomed the government’s decision to raise diet and cosmetic charges for students in welfare hostels and residential schools.
Recommendations
The Commission asked the government to constitute a state-level SC/ST Vigilance and Monitoring Committee including civil society representatives, hold district-level meetings every three months, and set up special SC/ST courts in all 33 districts, with judges assigned exclusively to such cases. Currently, such courts exist only in the erstwhile combined districts. It also recommended observing Civil Rights Day monthly in villages and urban areas, with the Tahsildar and Sub-Inspector mandatorily attending.
Further, the Commission urged the government to pay compensation and rehabilitation on time, as a matter of right, adhere to reservation rules, fill backlog posts, and distribute land to landless SC/ST families rather than acquiring their land, build permanent buildings for residential schools currently operating in private premises, and improve food and amenities, provide Rs 1 crore insurance cover for municipal workers, assistance and life insurance for landless SC/ST workers under the Indiramma Athmeeya Bharosa scheme, and extend Rythu Bharosa, Rythu Bima, and crop-loss compensation to SC/ST tenant farmers.
The Commission also said it travelled to Delhi to urge the Union Minister of Social Justice and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to seek an exemption for atrocity cases from the Supreme Court’s restriction on arrests in offences punishable with less than seven years. It said police were using that restriction as a pretext not to arrest accused persons.
The Commission’s members are Kushram Neeladevi, Rambabu Naik, K. Lakshminarayana, Reniguntla Praveen and Jilla Shankar.
