CHANDIGARH: Sampat Singh the leader of the opposition in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha has demanded the dismissal of the Bhajan Lal government and initiation of proceedings against the chief minister under Sections 153/153A 153-B IPC for “spreading casteism.
This is necessary Sampat Singh said in order to save Haryana from becoming another Punjab. In a strongly worded statement here on Sunday he charged Bhajan Lal with what he termed discrimination against the Jat’s and warmed the state government to desist from reducing the Jat’s to second class citizens.
Sampat Singh who is a Jat himself had raised the issue of Jat and non-Jat alleged that the Haryana government under Bhajan Lalwas denying Jat’s their due in postings promotions and recruitment especially in the police department. He held charge of the police department as the state home minister under Devi Lal Chautala Hukam Singh and B.D. Gupta regime of Janata Dal-SIP.
Referring to stepped up militant activities in Haryana Sampat Singh emphasized that since Bhajan Lal had taken over as the chief minister more than two dozen incidents of militant violence had occurred wherein not only innocent people but police officials and senior officers had fallen victim to the militant bullets. He alleged that hundreds of people were being kidnapped for ransom implying that the entire Haryana police administration has become crippled.
Sampat Singh mentioned the killing of M.L Verma additional principal secretary to the chief minister killing of policemen at Barara (Ambala) and a blast in the train near Narwana (Jind) in support of his contention and alleged that instead of catching the militants the police are engaged in killing innocent people in fake encounters and said the encounter at Bharokha along Ratia-Bamala road was one such incident.
He attributed this to what he called crippled police leadership and recruitments promotions transfers effected not on merit but on caste lines. This he said was due to gross political interference by the chief minister. In this context Sampat Singh argued that 3 particular inspector general once heading technical section and armed police and who has now been assigned the charge of operations was in-charge of recruitments including those of commando’s and “all this was being done to isolate the Jat’s from the mainstream”. He reminded the chief minister that this very officer had registered a case of rape against him in 1975-76.
Even in postings of station house officers (SHOs) the criteria of caste consideration was working. Sampat Singh alleged and asserted that not a single police station out of 17 in Hisar district was held by a Jat SHO. Hisar is the home district of both Bhajan Laland Sampat Singh. He reiterated that six posts of SPs lying vacant were not being filled since all those awaiting promotion were Jat’s. He gave names of the officers too.
Sampat Singh has also blamed the government for what he called engineering the strike among a Section of the state police.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 21, 1992
