Visuals of young men and boys walking naked through the streets of Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, are getting viral on social media. These men are protesting against the fake caste certificate scam that has been going on in state government offices for over 20 years.
Youth from the reserved castes have been protesting against the scam for the past seven days in the Tuta area of Raipur. The protesters are on a hunger strike against the government’s indifference to the scam.
On July 18, some of these protesters marched naked to the Vidhan Sabha. They were stopped by officers in civilian uniforms. The protesters carried placards that read, “Reserved employees in the government, open up, raise your voice against the government,” another read, “Stop protecting 267 fake caste certificate holders in the state,” and more.
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One of the protesters, Haresh Banjare, a resident of Pandariya, is in critical condition and has been taken to Ambedkar Hospital.
The state of Chhatisgarh came into being on November 1, 2000, and appointments such as these have been made in the state ever since. Appointments to reserved seats include officers in grades A and B, regardless of whether they are among the non-reserved seats.
In 2000, Congress leader Ajit Jogi took oath as chief minister of the state, and the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) raised questions about his caste, but to no avail. A complaint in this regard was also registered and the matter went to court.
Now, if we go by the data, since 2001 to date, 267 appointments have been made on the basis of forged caste certificates. In 2001, the very first such fraud case was uncovered. In 2002–2 such cases were reported, and in 2005–10 such cases were reported. In 2006–5 cases, 2007–21 cases, 2008–8 cases, 2009–6 cases, 2010–6 cases and so on. According to the reports, from 2011 to 2020, no less than 186 appointments were made with fake caste certificates.
Cases of forged caste certificates were found in almost all the government offices of Chhattisgarh. The highest number of cases, 44, were found in the Sports and Youth Welfare Department, 18 in the Bhilai Steel Plant, and 14 each in the General Administration Department and the Agriculture Department.
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Since 2000, there have been protests against the increasing number of cases in appointments, but no strict measures have been taken so far. A special investigative committee was also set up to look into 700 cases and found 267 cases of fraud in appointments.
Following the Committee’s report, the State government, in a letter dated December 25, 2020, directed the Administration to terminate all employees with forged caste certificates, effective immediately.
To date, however, no such action has been taken, and no recommendation of the Committee has been adopted by the State administration.
According to media reports, only one official has been terminated to date following the committee’s report. The files of the other 13 cases have remained in the departments, while the remaining cases are sub judice before the High Court.
Among the 267 fake card holders are some big names: deputy collector Anand Masih, Anurag Lal, associate collector Shankar Lal Dagla and his son Suresh Kumar Dagla, joint commissioner Bhuwal Singh, SDM Sunil Maitri, deputy commissioner CS Kotriwar, auditor Ramshray Singh, assistant surgeon Dr RK Singh, joint director Kristina CS Lal, CEO Radheshyam Mehra and others.
Since the matter is sub judice, many of those having fake certificates are still serving the government. The protesting youth from among the scheduled caste and tribes are against them and demand immediate action in the case.
Vinay Kaushal, who is leading the movement, said he had already spoken to officials in charge, who said there was pressure from above, “we warned of a riot if we did nothing, and since May 16 we have been fasting to death. Our agitating young friends were hospitalised one by one in critical condition, but the government and the administration remained unaffected by the matter
“We have postponed our hunger strike, but we will do everything we can to assert our rights. We cannot risk our self-respect, we will go completely naked to wake the government from sleep,” Kaushal added.
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