Telangana CM to hold all-party meeting on Dalit empowerment scheme today

The meeting comes days after the National Commission for Scheduled Castes issued a notice to the Telangana government over the death of a Dalit woman in the Bhongir district.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will on Sunday hold a day-long all-party meeting in Hyderabad to prepare guidelines for the CM Dalit Empowerment Scheme. Several Dalit public representatives, Dalit lawmakers and legislators from all political parties, including the opposition AIMIM, Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are likely to participate in the proposed meeting from 11.30am at Pragati Bhavan.

Dalit lawmakers and legislators from all political parties are likely to participate in the proposed meeting. (File photo)

K Chandrashekhar Rao or KCR, as he is known popularly, called CPI(M) and CPI party's state secretaries Chada Venkat Reddy and Tammineni Veerabhadram to ask them to send their senior Dalit leaders to the meeting, according to news agency ANI. State chief secretary Somesh Kumar, officials from the chief minister’s office and other senior officials will also participate.

"In the newly formed Telangana State, the Telangana government is working for the welfare of Dalits in all the sectors. In the back-drop, the proposed meeting would discuss at length the qualitative development change that the government can bring in and what measures can be taken to achieve this would be discussed at the meeting,” the chief minister’s office said in a release, according to ANI.

The meeting comes days after the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) issued a notice to the state government over the death of a Dalit woman, Mariamma, in the Bhongir district. ANI reported, citing NCSC, that Mariamma was arrested along with her son Uday Kiran after her employer accused her of theft. She was beaten for four days, as per the report, and died due to alleged police torture at the police station.

KCR has ordered an inquiry and asked the concerned authorities to take stringent action against the police personnel responsible as per the law. "We will not pardon such incidents. The government will not keep quiet if anyone does harm to Dalits. There will be swift action on the matter. There should not be any delay in inquiring about the culprits of lockup death and taking stern action against them. If need be, dismiss them from the service," the chief minister said on Friday, according to ANI.

Rao said the government will support the children of the victim and give one of them a government job, a house, and an ex-gratia of ₹15 lakh, and that her two daughters will be given ₹10 lakh each.