Don't use the word Dalit to identify someone: Punjab SC panel
Darpan News Desk IANS, 21 Sep, 2021 11:09 AM
Chandigarh, Sep 21 (IANS) Taking note of the word 'Dalit' being used for newly-appointed Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi by the media, the Chairperson of the state Scheduled Castes Commission, Tejinder Kaur, on Tuesday issued instructions not to use the nomenclature to mark the identity of any person belonging to Schedule Castes.
In a statement issued here, Kaur said the nomenclature Dalit does not find mention in the Constitution or any other statute.
Even the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has directed all state governments and Union Territory administrations to use the word Scheduled Caste instead of Dalit for persons belonging to SCs.
Acting on the reports of violations being made by the media, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued a notice to private satellite TV channels, asking them to comply with an order passed earlier by the Bombay High Court to not use the word Dalit in reports, Kaur said.
Devotees in large numbers took part in the nagar kirtan held to commemorate the ‘first Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Granth Sahib’ (installation in Sri Harmandar Sahib in 1604) here on Monday.
Former general secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Sukhdev Singh Bhaur was on Friday arrested from Mohali town, adjoining Chandigarh, following a case registered against him for hurting religious sentiments of a community, police said.
At a hearing on Thursday, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith sentenced the 46-year-old to five years behind bars for each of the six counts, to run concurrently.
A one-page hand-written suicide note was recovered from the spot where the officer was found unconscious and it is being sent to the hand-writing experts for examination.
